HE HUSTLES

able to learn how to dress, how to be professional and that was a major thing to learn Being able to learn how to iron clothes, I was a kid, I would just pack it all up and put it in a paper sack. I didn't have a suitcase Look at me now

Looking back over your years in comedy, what has been the highlight of your career thus far? There is a couple of them. One, the movie Reverend Do wrong absolutely was a highlight, you know, being able to star in the movie, be a lead without any acting experience, that says a lot.

The main one though, has to be Def Comedy Jam Bob Sumner, Chuck, Joe took his word on it and told him, Hey, this is a guy you need to have on the show and he's fantastic He'll do this, he'll do that Bob came looking for me, and thank God he did Cause it changed my entire life

The one event after that was with DL Hugley, We were working in North Carolina, and we were blessed enough to connect and he was like, "Hey, I got a show that's starting and it's called Comic View" So to do that right after, was a blessing Although Do wrong came after comic view and came after Def Jam

What has been your greatest lesson that you take with you?

In comedy or in life, I will answer both. In comedy, Never burn any bridges Be humble Be thankful for every single thing that you receive And no matter how big or small, just show God a lot of gratitude and show the people who help you get there, alot of gratitude That's not always a easy thing to do Alot of times we get caught up in ourselves and thinking our blessings come from us, when it actually comes from God and the people he sends and uses to bless you

In life, the answer is simple: The people that we love, our loved ones from your parents to your children, to your spouse, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, Whoever you love It is important that they know you love them unconditionally I feel that is the biggest lesson I've taken

How have you managed to balance your long standing career in comedy and fatherhood?

I've been doing comedy for 40 years, so that part was easy. Being a father with no experience, you know, they don't come with instructions I give a lot of that to my ex-wife, She did a wonderful job whenever I wasn't around and when I was around, she did a wonderful job with him

Being a father and being in show business, you have to separate the two He knows me only as his dad He knows what I do now, he is currently 21 and starting to get into the entertainment business himself Not comedy, but other genres of entertainment He understands the difference between show business and being daddy at home He knows you can't have the show without the business, but you can always have daddy as long as God bless you to have me in life I made sure I paid extra attention to him and let him know all of this other stuff in the, in the back none of that matters He mattered Everything else was background noise

What is your definition of a Man Who Hustles?

Barack Hustled, pushed it, he pushed it He did all of the unforeseeable at the time Somebody like that who shows hustle in different ways

You know, there are different types of hustles There are street hustles, what I like to call the intelligence hustle: where you think your way throughout the street, we already know that's self-explanatory Then there's a combination of all That's exactly what Barack was, that's where most of us are You see so many people out, that are awesome There is so many comics out, living or ones that are past that are all great I will name five that I think hustle and are great

If I was doing a new Kings of comedy, these would be my five choices other than myself I would go with Lavelle Crawford, Kat Williams, Earthquake, JB Smooth, Dion Cole and me This is excluding Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock

We have to take the top fruit from over there and let's be honest, Kat is a brilliant comic He is a very intelligent marketing genius He has been around for a while, because he is great at what he does Make no mistakes about it, he is clearly one of the best ever take a look at his body of work, It speaks for itself Nobody has more standups than him, he has made the most off of his standup shows, the pimp chronicles made many millions

So you have those guys who are hustling, they are hustlers and getting their stuff out there, Alot of people don't get the chance to get a beautiful break The ones that do deserve to be there and you root for them hard. Kat deserves to be there, I have alot of respect for him Love, respect and acknowledgment