The Jim Jackson Show: Chris Spencer

27:46And we're going to write for you. Like I wrote for Steph. Really? Yeah, I called him out of nowhere. I called Will Lowry. Yeah. Steph's hosting the ESPYs. He needs me. I don't want no money. I just need to be there by his side. Really? Really. Didn't take a check? No. And how open was Steph to that? Very open. Very open. Wide open. And he hit the shot. Right. So, but Jamie, Cedric, Kevin, Epps, Tiffany, Wanda Sykes, like, I'm there somewhere. You know what I mean? And it's gotten to a point where this is where I, A, people point at me and they don't name like TV shows. They go, you be right. You be right.

28:30You make everybody great. I'm not everybody. But it's gotten to a point now where people will watch an award show. And then they'll go. They know exactly which. They know which joke I wrote. Really? Every time. So you did it for Tom Brady, right? For the roast? Yes. For Kevin. You did it for Kevin. I wrote for Kevin. Yes. I wrote for Kevin. So how is it working with comedians like that? I mean, because. Because we came up in the trenches together. You know what I mean? So imagine dudes who went to your AAU camp and now they're the man. I know. I love it, man. I love it. I love Kevin. I love seeing him win.

29:09And he always hires me. You know, we created real husbands together. So our children are best friends. So that's like my brother. You know what I mean? But these people trust me because we know each other. When we was at McDonald's or whatever joking, and before there was a show and all of this, they know I'm funny. They know I know. Jamie knows if he, for example, we did the ESPYs in 2000. You're there. Matter of fact, there's a shot when he says a joke and you go, ooh, yeah. Right. I think it was about Serena or something. Anyway, the tennis ball thing. Remember tennis ball? So Jamie, they hired me a lot because I'm the liaison sometimes between the production people and the act.

29:53Right? So Jamie might not say F that joke, but I'm going to go, you know, Jamie ain't going to do that. So we got to kind of figure out a way to go. I'm the voice for these people. So they can always be the good guy. You know what I mean? And not that I'm the bad guy, but I'm going to speak for, I'm going to speak up for them. And that's why they also, they love my pen, but they also love my voice. Is it, but for a comedian like Jamie, for a comedian like Kevin Hart or Seth, is it because you know them, is it tougher still because you know them sometimes to, when they don't take a joke you want?

30:30No, okay. Because I have another one. Another one. Listen, I'm so arrogant now with my comedy. Like if I'm on stage and the joke don't work, I think you didn't get it. There's no way. There's no way it can't be funny, right? Who are these people who don't get it? Is there someone you wrote for that you say I'd never write for him again? No. No? Didn't come across? I mean, I've written for people and they've said my words wrong and this didn't work and I told you that wouldn't work. But no, we love each other. This comedy fraternity, you know, you hear all this beef and it's so small, you know, the people who are going at each other.

31:18But the rest of us love seeing each other. We love seeing each other at the airport. Right, when you're traveling and doing stuff. Is it like competition? You got competition in sports and now in comedy, but you have a camaraderie, unwritten, friendly competition. But how big is it in your time as far as joke stealing? I don't really hear about it. Here's what's so funny. I have a friend. and he called me one night and said, yo, I was in Toledo last night and I wasn't doing well and I did your joke. That's honest, right? I said, did it kill? It killed. It killed. Right? But this is how funny he is.

32:10So he calls me a couple months later. I go, you know, he goes, I just shot my special. I go, congratulations. He said, you know that joke we do?

32:24I said, we? We. He did my joke on the special. Did he? How can I be mad? It was actually an older joke, but it was just the honesty. I don't really hear about people stealing jokes anymore. It used to be bad. You remember the 90s? People were getting into fights, knocked out. That's what I was, and that's the point I was getting to. Right. So did the era, the time to switch, because even you had some stuff going on in the 80s like that, too. Right, yes. Comedy-wise. Yeah. Why do you think that changed a little bit? I know, it still happens. I mean, maybe not as much. I'm an elderly statesman now.

32:58So just like you don't hear much locker room stuff anymore, I don't really hear that stuff as much anymore. I'm a pushback because in today's world with social media and, and, and all these internet and everything, a lot more stuff gets out. I know the stuff that's out. Okay. Okay. I'm just talking about like the inner working. I'll have to hear it later, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so, but I'm not in the trenches like that anymore. Maybe that's a better way to say it. I'm not, you know, they see me and they're like, Oh, you know, Hey man, can you help me with this?

33:36Listen, I'm not hearing about these two younger guys fighting over a joke. But you remember the 90s, dude. It was ugly. I remember arguments like this. Hey, man, you stole my joke. What joke? The thing about the blah, blah, blah. He said, dude, I've been doing that joke for eight years. He's like, I've been doing it for six. Like he had a point.

33:59But you've been in it. So changes in comedy. And I always like to relate things to sports because each era is different. And I tell people this all the time. They say, well, Steph, if Steph played back in the late 80s, 90s, he couldn't compete. I said, let me explain something to you. I said, one, you can't just transfer his talent, what he's doing today, and take that back. They said, well, why? I said, because he would grow up playing the game being taught differently. Okay, so you're telling me Steph couldn't play back then, but Muggsy could. D. Brown could. Michael Adams could. Terrell Brandon could.

34:39Spud Webb could. And they're shorter than Steph. Yep. But they grew up being taught to play on the playground, in the alley, you know, in these gyms and physicals. So his game wouldn't be the same. Right. And it's just like you can't transfer a player from the 80s and put him into like Jordan. If Jordan played today, he'd be a different player because he'd be. So from comedy, it's changed so much. It evolved. But yet the essence is still the same. How have you seen the growth or the changes since you're in the 90s, 2000s to where we're at now? So earlier, I think there were more storytellers, the Cosbys, the priors, and audiences were patient, right?

35:27You could tell a long form story. You could do Mudbone and you could do these characters and audience would sit. And I think with the advent of comic view and Dev Jam, comedy became faster. We want the joke now. You know what I mean? And I think that storytelling form is starting to come back with Dave and like Ali Sadiq. Like people are taking their, Kevin takes his time with these stories. And so, I mean, funny, it's funny. Like you said, if you're good, you're good. You can adapt into any era. And so I like seeing that kind of stuff again, where people are telling these longer form stories as opposed to joke, joke, joke, joke, joke, joke, joke.

36:08But David does it, Chappelle does it with a mixture. It's comedic. Oh, there's yes. But it's political. Yes. It's truth. It's it's a lot of things that go. And I think that he's earned that reputation where people are going to be more patient. Sure. To actually see what he's going to say. Exactly. And sometimes it's not even a joke. It's kind of the depth in which he's telling the story. And everybody can't do that. Kevin does his a different way. He keeps you in by little sidebars. And then he leads up to it. So who else would you say kind of from a young perspective, you seen a young comedian that kind of has those chops right now?

36:53It was a good question, right? Yeah. there's a guy named Brian Simpson makes me laugh why he's just so smart and he sits in the pocket and there's stuff going by him and he doesn't really do many urban rooms but he'll kill in any room he's just patient and his stuff is Sidney Castillo has a special out right now he kind of came up under us right he's he was on a roll with me early and then with Marlon Wayans Marlon has grown like I've never seen somebody go from that to that like so I don't know if you can call Marlon Young anymore he used to be the young guy now he's 52 so maybe not Marlon but Sidney Castile is one to watch who are some of the other people what about Matt Reif oh he's great Ohio yeah by the way I probably I noticed why you said it oh hey I learned that from Dave Matt Reif is great Nate Jackson who's kind of an underling of not an underling of Matt he was one of his boys he does a lot of crowd work like that too so there's some funny kids out there like Ryan Davis he sits in the pocket too

38:18DC Youngfly like these people this is another conversation is like there was this advent of all these social media guys, right? And they were going out doing stand-up and selling out tickets, selling tickets, and a lot of the older guys were mad because these young guys who weren't funny were selling tickets, and then they're funny and not selling tickets. And then those young dudes started getting their ass handed to them, and they finally, and some of them realized, I got to become a real stand-up. So the D.C. Young Flies, the King Batches, the Desi Banks, they all started to really study. I would see DC Young flying the club studying.

38:54Studying. So he would go to different shows. You want to go up? No, no, no. No, no. He just watching. So he's scouting. The scouting report. Scouting report. And I love seeing that because now I've seen these guys five years later now, and they're incredible comedians. So for you, it's a two-pronged question. As a young comedian, best advice you got and the advice that you would give a young comedian coming up right now. Damon Wayans. Mm-hmm. Right. Who I used to open for. He told me.

39:26He told me, which is kind of back to what I was saying about having these longer form conversations. He says, you're not going to be great until you can enjoy the silence. And so and I'd be like, what? I didn't understand what that meant when I'm 26 years old. but I love being the puppet master. Like we tell, you see Dave tell a story and it's quiet and he's doing this, this and this. And then he goes,

39:58Oh, it's when the room is silent. It's like a 300 yard drive. Or it's like a musician that changes the tone and tempo of a song and brings the crowd down. I can do whatever I want. I'm the puppet master. And so if you want to be great young comedians, you have to learn how to appreciate the silence. I would just take exactly what he told me and tell them. But that silence for a. That silence from jokes that aren't working. Okay, that's what I'm saying. See, that's the difference. With Dave Chappelle, you see people lean into it a lot. Exactly. They lean into that. Right. Yeah. One of my favorite comedians, one of the greatest comedians, and he's more of a comedian's comedian because he hasn't really done it in a long time.

40:44Do you remember Daryl Heath? Yeah. Daryl. He didn't, he didn't do a lot. He's just, Daryl used to do stuff and I'll be like, how? But he was good at the silence. Like he would do stuff to make you lean in. Like I remember one time we're in Atlanta for Laugh of Palooza earthquake. I keep hearing the word. Who's this earthquake? Earthquake, earthquake. I was like, who's this earthquake? You'll see it. I walked in and the walls were shaking and I was like, oh, that's why. And they're like, Daryl, you're up next. He's like, okay. I was like, Are you crazy? Hey, can we put somebody over up before Daryl?

41:14He's like, no, no, I'm good. And so Daryl would go up. Yeah, y 'all doing your good? All right. Everybody has a nice shirt, man. And now you're like. Yeah. And when I would see him do this, I'm like, he got him. He got him. It's home. Because Earthquake, I mean, they're still putting the lamps back up. And he'd be like, yeah, that's a nice shirt, man. Yeah, it's a great crowd. That's your woman? She's beautiful. Thank you. How you doing? Daryl, I'm from L.A., blah, blah, blah. And people are like, is he going to tell a joke? But they were like hypnotized. And so that's when the silence works, when you're in control of silence.

41:49Now, if you're saying jokes and they're quiet, that's not what Damon Williams was talking about. Well, you know, it's interesting, too, because there's a lot of storylines. and we use tragedy, not me, but comedians, as a way to lighten the subject matter a little bit more. But I think you said this, and a lot of comedians said that, that back in the day, you had to have some form of laughter to get through the trauma that you were going through. But it's hard to tell the truth about yourself. It's easy to tell about somebody else. Right. When did you get to that point in your career where telling the truth and being able to be cool with that with yourself was comfortable?

42:35The real truth. Watching Damon. Damon would say stuff. I'm like, you sure you want everybody to know that? You know what I mean? That honesty. You know what people love, Kevin? Not because he has the funny laugh and that he's short. He brings you in. Why do you put the short in there? Why do you throw the short? People like short people. He's amusing. He's short. He looks cute, right? Oh, he's so cute. He looks cute. But he brings you into stuff in his world. He talks about his marriage. His father was on drugs. He talks about, you know, the way he came up. He talks about his kids and not liking this kid, and this kid is a crime.

43:15Like, he's giving you information like, yo, should you be sharing that? But then you go, yo, my dad does drugs. Exactly. You know, so he makes himself endearing to you. And even if you don't have the same problems as him, the fact that he's opening up to you makes you go, wow, I love this. That's why you love Mike Epps too. Mike Epps tells you everything. I think that's what. Mike Epps has a joke about some of his kids are ugly. How could you say that? I know, right? Yeah, I wasn't. I hadn't made it yet or whatever he said to their mama's up. Rich Eisen here. We talk a lot about battles in sports.

43:56Teams battling through adversity. Athletes fighting for every yard. The toughest warriors I've ever seen, though, aren't on the field. They're kids fighting cancer. They're families standing beside them. Doctors, nurses, caregivers. That's why I'm proud to support Hyundai Hope on Wheels. For over 28 years, they've helped fund pediatric cancer research, raising more than$303 million and supporting over 40 ,000 children. Learn more and donate at HyundaiUSA.com backslash Hope on Wheels. O 'Reilly Auto Parts can help take the guesswork out of your vehicle's check engine, ABS, or maintenance light with O 'Reilly Veriscan.

44:31The service is free and provides a report with solutions verified by ASE certified master technicians. Ask for an O 'Reilly Veriscan today. But that's what, us being older, and I wasn't supposed to be watching it at the time, but because of the way my parents and the people were, it was Richard Pryor. Of course. Richard would tell you about the cocaine addiction, about the women, about his abuse growing up. Growing up in a brothel. Growing up in a brothel. But if it, you know, live on Sunset Strip. Oh, my God. It just, the red suit. Yes. The black shirt. Sure. It just, it was so authentic. Now, again, the story had been told about his life and everything.

45:09But yet and still, even though you knew the story, you knew the background, you knew what was going on, when he started to bring you in and started to talk to these, to these things that happened in his life, it was like almost like the first time hearing it. Cause the way he presented it. I remember he talked about when he was, he set himself on fire. That's right. He's talking about the bad joke. I heard y 'all jokes. Yeah. I said, what is this? Richard Perron down the street. F y 'all. But he makes fun of, and that's, that's an endearing quality, even though he was, he had all this others. He had another person, not another person over here.

45:46You know, his personal life, then his comedic life. Right. Two different people. Two different people. Matter of fact, it's so funny. I was just talking to my friend, Annie Clemens, who portrayed Richard Pryor in this miniseries. And a lot of people were wondering why he wasn't imitating Richard Pryor. Right. But he's like, if you watch interviews with Richard Pryor, that guy doesn't sound like live on sunset strip like he had a different cadence a different voice he said so i was doing him because you're going to see me doing i'm not really going to do a performance in this tv show i'm going to be i'm going to be having conversations and interacting with the rest of these characters and so those i think there was two different richards maybe three or four it might have been but you know but you see a different richard in stir crazy Yeah.

46:37Okay, the movie. One of my favorite. Grohlberger. Yeah. I mean, but his, it's interesting too at that time, was that in 70, 78, something like that, you got this picture in your mind, and I know probably for the white audience, they had this in their mind about Richard Pryor, who he was, even if they saw something. How could he pull this off? What was, it was Gene Wilder. Wilder. Who was a genius. He was a genius. Willy Wonka, shout out. Made me want chocolate all day long. All day long. But the chemistry between the two. Remember, they did three movies together. They did Hear No Evil, Say No Evil, and Silver Streak.

47:21Silver Streak. But it's just watching the dynamic. And you talked about the Richard Pryde, the genius in him, going from just doing stand-up, performing, and then the acting. Right. And then even what he played in Harlem Nights. Oh, my God. I mean, it's just. To have to. And basically, you're talking about the funniest man in the world who said, okay, I'm here with Red Fox and Eddie Murphy. I'm going to be the straight man. The straight man. But he still was funny. But he's like, I'm going to let them do that, and I'm going to sit back and do this. I'm going to be the quarterback. genius and that guy ain't the same guy in the toy right right that's not the same guy in Lady Sings the Blues at all no it's not he had range he had he had speaking of Red Fox see that shirt right there partner it's so funny when young people ask me what this is I'm like you're so disrespectful people don't realize too young people they may they may see Sanford and Son yep they don't understand that he was a comedian and Malcolm X's best friend right Right.

48:29Isn't that crazy? Ain't that crazy? Can you imagine you walk down the street and you go, yo, two different reds. Two different reds. But, you know, watching those, I guess part of, and again, I'm not the novice as far as knowing everything, but growing up at the time, comedy was huge when I was younger. You know, because whether you saw a standup or not, a lot of the sitcoms had a lot of comedy in it. God, I miss those. We came up in a great era. Why is it that, in your opinion, 70s, 80s, we had more black shows on TV at that time compared to what we see now? We actually have a lot of black shows now.

49:12I'm talking about more dramas. Dramas. Yes. I mean, what's happening? Good times. The Jeffersons. 228. I mean, 227. Yep. What am I missing? Sanford and Son. Sanford and Son. Yes. If you want to come a little later, the Cosby Show. The Cosby Show. There was an era in the 90s we was winning too. We'd hang with Mr. Cooper and Jamie Foxx and Martin. So it's like, I don't know if it's cyclical. Right. Like, they're going to be funny now. Now we're going to make them dramatic. They're going to be funny now. So I think they're trying to lean back in because actually Tommy Davidson has a new show possibly coming out from that character Varnelli played on Martin.

49:48And so I think they're coming back. You know, Mike Epps, they have a multicam on Netflix, him and Wanda Sykes and Kim Fields. and then it was this great show called The Real Husbands of Hollywood. Let me stop you there. Maybe I should skew it a little bit more. There were a lot of shows, but back then because of the change in how we're viewing shows, whether they're streaming platforms, and you don't have to be on network TV. Back then, you didn't have the offerings. We had to run home and be home. You had to be home and watch it. Now you can watch it. So let me preface that and say, back then it was on primetime TV.

50:29Jeffersons came on at a certain time, primetime-wise. Okay? And you had to be there to watch. You missed it. If you missed it, it wasn't a rerun. You had to wait. You had to wait somehow until they ran a rerun. Right. But do you see that continue to evolve with the expansion of the streaming and everything? Yeah, I think it's harder to sell now. I think there's a lot of cutbacks all my studios cutting back oh my god, writers rooms now are like one dude two dudes, it used to be 10, 15 people it used to be you know, back then a season was 24, 26 episodes now it's 8, 6 and so you end up binge watching and then you have nothing to watch you know what I mean, so that's kind of messed up I hate that I hate when shows don't allow me to binge watch and then I hate the show.

51:22I'm like, I don't want to watch another one. I want to save it. Be up all night. All night long. That's the, and I guess I see a lot of young up and coming actors, comedians getting into the space and then like, what's the next iteration of comedy? Are we going to get back to those shows that, so back in the day you got with your family. That was a beautiful part of the 70s and 80s. You sat down, really in the 70s and 80s too, you sat down with your family, got popcorn, got whatever it was, got in front of the TV, and you watched the show together. We do that. Like my wife, we have a screen in the backyard.

52:05We have movie night and TV night, and we have the kids come. What do you want to watch? And we've brought back the classics for them to know, so they can know that their music ain't shit, and that these TV shows ain't shit. So you can know why we talk the way we talk, why we're so judgmental when we see this. Just like, hey, my dad thought Dr. J was better than Jordan. But we make sure that they've seen all of it. Then now you can compare and contrast. And speaking to bringing your kids back and growing up in this world, in Hollywood, as a comedian, how has that shaped you as a father? And the kids, at one point a day, again, with athletes, that's just my dad.

52:51Right. Trying to be funny. He ain't that funny. So, one, being a father in Hollywood, how was that? And the things you had to go through. But how do your kids, when they were younger, really see you? I mean, you know, it's so funny. Like, I'm just dad. You know what I mean? like other people are famous, but I see dad every day. Every day. I heard dad farted. You know what I mean? Dad picks his nose. Dad is getting cussed out by mommy. He's normal, but I've never heard Dave Chappelle get cussed out. I've never heard, you know, Denzel, you know, so they're still, you know, even though you grew up in this, there's still somebody that's going to make you go, yo, you know what I mean?

53:37Cute story. So Kevin's daughter and my kids are best friends. And we're in, God, this is going to sound very bougie. We're in the vineyard. Oh, the vineyard. About to play golf. And Don Cheadle comes over to pick me up to go play. And Kevin's daughter froze. I go, what's wrong with you? She goes, no, she ran back in the room. I go, what's wrong with you? She goes, now she's a big comic book person. She goes, she's crying. I go, what's wrong? She goes, is War Machine out there? War Machine. War Machine. I go, yeah. I said, come say hi to War Machine. I can't say hi to War Machine. And I'm thinking, your dad's Kevin Hart, but that's her dad.

54:18That's her dad. That ain't Mouse. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, yeah. I mean, you know, just like your kids. You know, it was cool when they saw you. Yeah, they like. But then, you know, back then, they go chasing kid or whatever. You know what I mean? It's a funny dynamic. But what were some of the challenges to being a father in Hollywood, raising kids? I was lucky man my wife is such a disciplinarian like you know we were

54:51amongst you know the super uber wealthy and our kids never were like I want what he has or I want what she has because we gave it to them it might not have been that we gave it to them It might not have been the year it came out, but they got it. I don't think my kids ever, we were so lucky. They never were trying to compare and contrast. And that's the problem with our culture. On my block, the block that I live on, some decent houses, right? But we're the black family with the BMWs and the Mercedes. Everybody else got Subarus and Camrys. That's what we're supposed to have, right? but I can't go on Sunset with the Subaru they'd be like what happened to Chris is he okay well you thought you just wanted Outback huh yeah they'd be like damn man he ain't survives he ain't survives his vibe you know what I mean like we kinda have to have although I also want nice stuff but my block you know Pathfinders this dude probably make way more money than me but nobody with nobody's car but does that did you ever fall into that trap in Hollywood again you got the kids right But trying to keep up, trying to impress, trying to.

56:11I don't know about impress, but I was never going to make us look down upon. You know what I mean? Nobody was going to ever feel sorry for it. Not that they would have ever had to, but we kept up. You know what I mean? Like I would literally, I don't know if you remember my post. Whenever I worked, my hashtag was another mother private school. That shit going right up to it. Shit going right to it. Yeah, so kids had a great life. And it's something, too, because it's a challenge with you, one, being famous. That's one thing. I'm not famous. I'm popular. Okay. Like if this was high school, there'd be the quarterback, the receiver.

56:52I was the strong safety. You strong safety. Okay, but you're very popular, but you're growing up in L.A. and in Hollywood. Right. In this environment, raising kids. Yeah. And those intimate conversations that you had to have with them about what life is really about and stay with it. But yet give them the things that they were given. And, you know, you grew up, where'd you grow up? You grew up in Englewood. As much as we want to duplicate how we grew up and give it to our kids, we know we can't. You know, from an education perspective, you got to send them to a really great school. I remember I was so funny you said this.

57:36My wife wanted to, I was trying to be my parents, right? Right. So they wanted something. I go, we can't be spending money like this. We can't afford it. She went, yes, we can. She said that thing. She goes, yeah, we can. I go, oh, we can. I was trying to be my mom. Yeah, we can. I was like, ah, shit, you ruined it. But we definitely didn't. I wouldn't say we spoiled them. They worked for everything. you know, that they got. And then all we want to return is, is respect. And, uh, we love to hear other people say something great about your kids. You know what I mean? I was always, what make me excited, like the teacher or another parent of a kid.

58:21Would I go pick them up? Yours? I wish my son was like your son, or I wish my daughter cleaned up after herself. Like, like that kind of stuff is rewarding. That's how they earned the Jordans. You know what I mean? Right. Did you feel it was an extra burden too, that your kids had to be in line? just because of who you were. I mean, how they carried themselves. You know what I mean? Yes. I'm the same way with mine, just because the level of expectation that I know my sons had to be on point. Because the expectation level. That's Jimmy Jackson's boys. That's right. And I wanted them to represent themselves, first of all, and the family.

58:55But I felt that added responsibility as a father to ensure that they were prepared and can handle themselves in any situation. I got a young one that's seven. and my oldest is 32, that you can, you know, I took pride in that. Yes. And when I hear those comments about it. It's the great. It's so rewarding. It's the best. Yeah. Yeah. When other people say stuff about your kids, you go, babe, we did a good job. I told you, if we kept beating them, all this stuff would work. And as you look at it, too, kids are how old now? 20 and 18. 2018. Last one is going to be gone. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Okay, so now what still drives you on the comedy side?

59:38Because I'm not finished. Finished, okay. What's next? Like I have a special. I need that to drop. Okay. Like I don't want my tombstone to read. Boy, he could write for everybody. Like I want to be known as a great performer as well. So we're going to bring that back to the beginning. Mm-hmm. Of the involvement of Chris Spencer. now performing in front of the camera or on stage? All of it. Okay. I'm too cute for radio. I'm burnt. Stupid, man. I'm burnt. But yeah, man, I'm a performer. Literally, like, I do all these other things. Like, if this was high school, we walked into the cafeteria, and I walked in, and Spike Lee and F.

1:00:23Gary Gray and Gina Prince-Bythewood was over here at the director's. These guys are going to be future directors. And then over here is Kenya Barris and Lena Waithe and the future writers, showrunner, producer, Shonda Rhimes. And over here is Tiffany and Cedric and all the silly people. I'm going right over here. Jay Phillips and the clowns. I'm a clown. Ruben Paul. This is somebody named Buddy Lewis. You know, Buddy. I'm going over here. I do all this. I'll say what's up to them. They'll be like, Joker, ha ha, give me a fry. And these dudes, yo, yo, yo, that test was hard. I'm going to sit with my, this is who I am.

1:01:10I am a clown. But do you think that hurts or helps you? I don't know. But no, because this is serious about how people view you. In the bigger aspect of what you want to do. But all three of these tables are doing well. Yeah, but I'm saying, this is what I'm saying. Yeah. Because for people to take you serious and do things on the acting side, and you don't want to be typecast just as Chris Spencer, the funny guy, all the time. How much does that being the funny guy may impact or impede the other? I don't mind because Robin Williams, Kevin, Eddie, all these people were dunking a lot as funny people, and then they got the opportunity to bring the ball up and do some dramas.

1:01:56Okay. So I want to be a great dunker in this comedy stuff. And then, you know what I mean? Jim Carrey, like they were great comedic actors in stand-ups and then had opera Chris Rock. They got opportunities to do these other things. So what's the path to that right now? Because you talk about now you want to be the performer. Yeah. When this special drops, people are going to be like, oh he can do that as well and he's pretty good so when is it don't don't tease us and don't well i mean i know you can't divulge all of it give us give give me it's been shot okay it's been shot so i was back to liars you was told what i talked to a network I know the president of the network I said yeah I'm shooting a special he said you better bring it here all I know is that Chris Spencer special better be here I said oh okay and I saw him a little later you know I'm shooting next week and we'll be here with open arms and then when I gave it to him the arms weren't open it fell to the ground and so now I've had to I've had to shop it and I've had offers it's just not quite the offers that I want and it's going to come to a point where I'm going to have to just go, I just got to put this out here and try some of these other methods of other ways that people are putting out specials, whether it be YouTube or another streaming platform.

1:03:27Because, you know, I was aiming at the big ones. Disappointed that the biggest one disappointed me, one of the biggest ones. And so I just got to, I might have to just suck it up and go, here it is, here I am. And then it's like a musician's first album. I might have to take an L on this one, but I'll be able to tour and prepare for albums two and three. Gotcha. A lot of information, man. But before we get out of here, I got a couple of quick hitters for you. Sure. That I wanted to get into. PXG. Oh, go ahead. Oh, you want some golf stuff? No, no. I thought you were going to ask me. So what do you play with PXGs?

1:04:01I play with PXGs. I know you got them free. I know you ain't paying for them. That's right. I remember when all y 'all had them early. I was like, y 'all pay for these. You know what I'm saying? Man, stop playing. What are you playing with? Taylor Maze right now. Tell you what, 790s? 790s, I got to get a new set, but I'm playing with the new Adapt Cobra, three wood, five wood. Everybody loves it. The driver, too? No. So, not the driver. What's your driver? So, I got the older Cobra driver. Everybody loves this Cobra. Wait, the Adapt right now got 33 settings, bro. See, I don't. I know. You be adjusted on the course?

1:04:34No, I just got it. But I've never adjusted in my club, ever. I just got it, so I'm trying to learn how to hit it. it's a trip. But Colbert Drivers and Three Woods. I just got the five, so I'm going to see how that hits. Now, again, still the person swinging the club. I don't care how good the equipment is. I don't know if we can say Indian anymore. It's always the Native American. There you go. There you go. Okay, look, quick hitter. Okay. I got some rapid-fire questions. Who's the go-to comedy? Rich Pryor. Ooh, that was quick. That's easy. Second.

1:05:16god that's a toughy right because i want to say eddie but it's almost like biggie only had two albums and eddie only had two specials and so but those two albums and those two specials but david kairi chappelle is something we've never seen so I have to have a 2 a 2A and a B is that possible? That's possible. I'll give you that one all time Hollywood crush your wife listening too so it better be in the past partner Cicely Tyson really? No I'm just having to go I had to go back far enough I was like go back but not Miss Jane Pittman Halle. Ohio, by the way. I know. Halle Berry was... I used to do a joke.

1:06:17Halle Berry's so fine that if anything ever happened, I would tell my wife. But what'd you do today? I'd be like, I'm glad you asked. Me and Halle... She could be mad and she could be upset, but she can't be really mad. She'd be like, all right. Because, yeah, she'd be like... Because she probably got a Hollywood crush, too. You think so? It's probably me, but... No, stop playing. Okay, look. But give me a joke that got you a gig.

1:06:45A joke. So it had to be in my stand-up, not just a regular joke. A good one that got you over the top. I don't know about over the top, but I told a joke that got me a gig at a doctor's convention. Really?

1:07:05So a dude's at a bar. He sees this woman. They're looking at each other. And they have some drinks. He's like, you want to go back to my place? And she's like, absolutely. They go back to his place. She goes, give me one second. She's in the bathroom forever. 15 minutes. They come back. He's like, you okay? She's like, yeah. They have sex. Great time. Right? He goes, let me ask you something. She's like, what? He says, you're definitely. They were at a doctor's convention, by the way. He goes, you're a surgeon. She goes, how'd you know? He goes, because you scrubbed up for so long in the bathroom.

1:07:37She's like, yeah, I am. And she goes, and you're an anesthesiologist. He goes, how'd you know? She goes, because I didn't feel shit.

1:07:47So I ended up doing this. So you ended up doing it? I had this thing for this plastic surgeon who fixes, like, people who have, like, cleft problems and hair lips in Africa. Yeah. So, but that joke, he's like, I want you to come to my thing. You pay for it? I mean, pay, pay. Pay. Okay. Payback. All right. Okay. If you had to have a theme song for your comedy career, what would it be?

1:08:13So Fresh and So Clean. So Fresh and So Clean. Okay. Or Classic Man. Yeah, So Fresh and So Clean. I like that one. Yeah. Last one.

1:08:28How does Tris Spencer want to be remembered? We talked about the tombstone earlier. As one of the funnest and funniest human beings that anyone has ever met. Well, I think if people get the chance to sit down and talk to you, understand who you are as a person, it'd be easy for them to come to that because I got the chance to know you over the years. We've all grown and evolved, but it's funny. Can I kind of steal the same? Right. We still the same. You know, it's. Still the same. Oh, yeah. Dot, dot, dot. can get up and down from anywhere.

1:09:07That's important. That's important. That's important. Man, I tell you what, this was so good. It felt like we should have maybe charged some people for this episode right here. Listen, so, but I do want you to let, you know, the audience, our fans that tune into the show kind of know some upcoming stuff, like what you're doing, like coming up. And how to get in touch with you too. Okay, so on Vice TV, as well as, I think it's still on Hulu as well, myself, Tiffany Haddish, and Ryan Davis did a 10-episode retrospective on black comedy in America. And that's the name of the show, Black Comedy in America.

1:09:47And we take you from the Chitlin Circuit all the way to basically Kevin Hart. episodes like Def Comedy Jam, The Kings of Comedy, Dave Chappelle, Eddie Murphy, and 80s sitcoms, 10 episodes. It's, excuse me, Spanish was earlier. It's incredible. It's shot well. It's produced by this company called Smack, Michael Strahan's production company, Constance Schwartz, And my wife, Vanessa, is also an executive producer on it, as well as a guy named Anthony, Anthony Brown. It's just, Anthony Smith. It's just, it's a must watch. And season two is coming soon. So before we go to, in this interview, I wanted to bring that up.

1:10:40By going through that process, did you learn anything new by going through that, by putting all of this together? Sure, yes. What was the biggest thing that you kind of got out of that? That the same way you just described listening to Richard Pryor kind of having to sneak to listen to it. Everybody from Michael Eric Dyson to is it Eric Michael Dyson? I always mix it up. Michael Eric Dyson. I mean, we didn't only interview comedians. We talked to Al Sharpton. We talked to, you know, you know, authors and other people who are in this game. Marcus King, who used to manage Jamie Foxx. Like we didn't only talk to people who were entertainers, but people who are around comedy and historians.

1:11:19And so a lot of people share those same intimate moments. Bless you. So I learned a lot. I learned, you know, Marla Gibbs, her story. Yo, she's got a story. The way she got the Jeffersons, I'm not going to tell you guys. I need you to watch. You're going to be like, really? this woman's 90 something incredible stories Kim Whitley and Tiffany share stories Bertie Mac's daughter and Tiffany talk I mean you know and then I have the D-rays and J.B. Smoves and Guy and Joe Torre I mean it's just like it's a nice well rounded 10 episodes giving you some factual information of how we as comedians tick and how comedy and how black comedy is the culture and black comedy is comedy.

1:12:19Like really, if you think about it, what white comedians, maybe one or two were doing stadiums like Kat Williams and Kevin and Dave and Chris, that's us. That's us. The superstar comedian. It was invented by us. I love it, man. Yeah. Well, good, man. You know, social media. I'm sorry. Social media. Instagram, the real Chris Spencer. Facebook I guess Chris Spencer some of you older people MySpace Chris Spencer and some of you older black people Black Planet Chris Spencer stupid man stupid man you know one thing I figured out too that as we get out of here our commonality what we really have in common is that when it comes to golf we're America's guest somebody told me he is a member who doesn't play dudes.

1:13:15At multiple courses. Listen, I dropped my membership just yesterday because I was at other people's courses more than mine. Right. And sometimes I pay at those other courses. Oh, yeah. If somebody invites me to, I'm like, you always have to get it. I try. I do what women do when you take them to eat. They go, you sure you don't? Please stop. You know you ain't got that one. Stop and park it to the person. Man, you ain't got to pay. All right, I need a glove. Yeah, come on. Don't worry. those are the kind that you do you want to do something nice for like I play with some people you play Alpine in New York?

1:13:49no I went in there I said I gotta get a shirt go ahead right okay and then I needed a glove and some hat I was like I gotta go I'm on some trinkets don't worry about it put it on the count put it on the count I was like it's a Scotty Cameron over there that nobody has yeah so I mean We're spoiled. We travel the world playing golf. It really is. I look forward to the next time we get out and play. Absolutely. I appreciate you coming on. Seriously, because I just thought it was important for me to be able to have you tell your story, the story about comedy, the involvement of it, the involvement of what you're doing and kind of where you're going.

1:14:27Because a lot of times you get locked in the box a little bit. Right. And it's good to have these kind of conversations to kind of open up, you know, that bandwidth a little bit more so people can understand it as much more than being the funny guy. Right. So I love it, man. Appreciate you, brother. My guy. You got it. When you back? I'll be back next week. We're going to play. Got it. Free. If it's free, it's for me. Give me three. Let me call some rich friends. Thanks a lot. And once again, you can catch the show at Jim Jackson show, youtube.com, the rich Ijen show, but also to wherever you download any of your podcasts, please, please take a little time and download ours as well.

1:15:04Thanks again for tuning in to The Jim Jackson Show.