There's an outfit you keep reaching for, isn't there? The one that's soft enough to sleep in, but yet together enough that you can answer the door with. And somehow, right for everything in between, cozier joggersets are made from viscose from bamboo. It's like a tapered fit, breathable, lightweight, and soft so that it carries great throughout the day.
And it gets better over time when you wear it, actually. It's intentional. You can have it in morning coffee, afternoon errands, evening winddowns. It goes wherever your day goes.
This isn't just for fashion or being fast around the house. It's something you'll keep reaching for from years from now. Trust me, it's what I do around the house. Try it for yourself.
These are made of last. 10-year warranty on your home wear. Isn't something you see often? It's just kind of the commitment and tells you everything about cozy earth and what they stand for.
This spring, give yourself the kind of comfort that lives with you all day. Not just the moment you get home. Head to cozyearth.com and use my code, mylet, for an exclusive 20% off. And if you see a post-purchase survey, mention you heard about cozy earth right here on the Ed Millet Show.
Cozy Earth Comfort Lives Here. This is the Ed Millet Show. Alright, welcome back everybody. Today's really something I've been looking forward to.
Let me tell you why. I've only done this twice in my entire life, but I'm watching Netflix a few weeks ago. And I just watched this brilliant piece of art that was not only hilarious, but it inspired me. And I'm watching this man communicate and perform what he's great at doing.
And I just see a depth to him. And I'm like, I want to talk to this person about his life. I have a feeling it's going to be one of the most inspiring episodes we've ever done before. And sure enough, I messaged him in about 42 seconds later.
He messes me back. And here we are a few weeks later. So I'm not busy. We're both busy as human beings on earth.
He just literally landed at the airport. And we made this thing happen because I think we both had a sense we should do this together. So his special is called it ain't for the week on Netflix right now. It is gold.
10 out of 10. If there was a higher number I could give it, I would. You will be laughing the entire time, but you will also leave there different. You will leave there inspired.
And I'm hoping that happens today as well. I can't wait. I listen to it all the time. She's just firing off all your guests and everything.
And then she went, what are you doing over there? Like your family. Your family is always the last people to believe in anything that you're doing. But I do when I hit me and you said what you said in the message, I get a lot of messages.
And obviously you look at the people who are verified first because you go, okay, they've been through it. Right? And I look at it and I look at it and I'm like, oh, okay. I know.
And then when you get it from somebody who makes a living recognizing certain things, it's different than, oh, you're funny. It's a different type of compliment that, oh, you're funny. I know exactly what you mean. And it hits you in a deeper space.
Well, your stuff hits me that way. I mean, it's mean it. And by the way, I watch Fat Ballerina, your previous special. And I watch with my wife like this guy is brilliant.
How come I don't know him? Right? And that's kind of where I want to start. You are right now blowing up.
You got the Nickelodeon show. Yeah. You got your tour. Yeah.
You got the Netflix special. You're doing a movie right now. Yeah. You're the dude.
Yeah. And it's working. You're this overnight success that took 27 freaking years. I know.
So take a stick as back a little bit because I just think this is one, I think they're inspiring people. But then I think people have lived inspiring lives. So did it really take you 20 plus years to actually really make a great living and break through doing this? No.
It didn't take 20 to make a great living. I've been making a really good living for about 10 years. Because I've been writing and producing television from House of Pain and Meat to Brown's for Tyler Perry to Real Husband's for Hollywood for Kevin Hart, Fuller House on Netflix, the reboot of that. I mean, I've written and produced a lot of television for a long time.
And now with the show that I created that girl lately that's on Nickelodeon and got picked up on Netflix, which is like the number one show on their network, is creating that show made me only the six black man in the history of TV to have a soul created by credit of a TV show, which I didn't even know until it happened, you know, when Will Packer called me up to do it. So I've been making a living sure, you know, a good living for a minute, but like now to an appointment where I'm starting to, people are starting to put my face with the comedy. That's been in the last couple of years of pandemic, social media. It's I tell people this all the time.
It's never been one thing. It's been a lot of little things that I've consistently done, but all driven towards the same goal. Was this the goal? So first off, so about a decade making a good living, but public notoriety that people walk down the street and go, Hey, there's David Aarnell.
That's been the last couple of years. Yeah. And so what's this the plan? Did you always want to do stand up?
Do you want to write or do you want to do all of it? I'll stand up and two things I want to take when I came to town that I wanted to do, which was 25 years ago. I wanted to do stand up. I want to be known for doing so.
I want it to be respected by the people in the stand up community and one of people to know that that's what I did. And I wanted to do I wanted to play a dad on the sitcom, even before I was a father before I was married before I was even old enough to play a father. That's always what I wanted to do. And you know, that's one thing about your special.
I just want to say to you, I love I think I love it for a couple of reasons. I love how you are open and honest and you talk about your family. Yeah. And yourself as a father.
Yeah. I also think if I'm being honest with you, I think there's a layer to it that I respected in my more and that there's something beautiful about a black man also doing that on stage talking about his family and his children is that we conscious of that. Like, I want to make sure that I've honored my wife and honored my children as I've got this far down the road or was it just that it's just so damn funny you talk about it. I think it's probably a combination of both.
You know, I've always thought that what is going on in my house is hilarious and ridiculous and painful at times, you know, and I think it was the same way growing up. I knew, you know, I bring my wife and children out on stage with me at the end of my special. And I decided to do that like somewhere in between my two or when I was preparing to film the special, I was like, I was just running on treadmill. And that's why I do a lot of my thinking when I'm working out, right?
And it's something just said, you know, people know me already and people who follow my social media, my Instagram and stuff and Facebook and all that. They know me and my family because I've been posting videos for the last couple of years and just explode viral videos, right? It's just unbelievable. And I was like, they already know this world.
I'm about to go out on stage and talk about this world. Why not bring the people out that I'm talking about? Beautiful. That has resonated with people more than so much that even the documentary that's attached to the end of the special even makes more sense.
I think it was it was a conscious thing, but it was also an organic thing that just makes sense. Yeah, I love the documentary thing. I'm going to talk about a little bit. It's really cool to hear someone talk about their life and then actually see the actual people.
You know, it's brilliant that you did that. Thank you. You said something special. So here we go.
We're going to get into the stuff that's going to like you're going to go. This is why I want to share this. This is what I'm going to take away from this interview because this man's story is so inspiring. Having said that, you say this thing in there that like I stopped it and I made my daughter watch it.
Wow. That's the stuff you talk about, right? Believe me, I relate to the frosting being off the cake and from Fab that. You've got to have that thing.
You've got to have that thing. It's that thing inside of you that it cannot be given to you. You have to find it. You can see it from others and the examples and you know that you've seen grow up.
My grandfather had that thing. My grandfather put all of us through college with an eighth grade education. You know what I'm saying? He laid asphalt in Cleveland, Ohio.
And that was my summers from seven years old till 17. We went out and worked the summers with my grandfather, laying 800 degree asphalt in the heat. That's where I learned to get that thing. My stepfather, who started the OJs and then quit the day before they made a million dollars and went on to watch them become the biggest thing ever, right?
And he went on to try to prove and be a producer and never hit that level of success again. But I watched him chase that every day. He had that thing. Yes.
And that thing is something that you have to find it. You know what I mean? And it can only begin. When I got sober, it was that thing that told me I don't want to live like this no more.
And I deserve better because I grew up around greatness. So like why would I sell myself short? And that's when I tell my daughters they play volleyball. They whatever they try to from the volleyball, from making friends, from being better in school, you got to have that thing inside of you because life is always coming for you.
That's so true. And that's what I try to give them. I said, you ain't got to be. Listen, I woke up at 29 years old.
That's when I decided that I wanted to be different. Sorry, don't get sober. Yeah, I got sober at 29 permanently. I got sober twice before that.
You know what I mean? Once it lasted 18 months, the other lasted nine months. But you know, this time I had started doing stand up and I knew inside that I had it, that I had what it took to be great. And I knew that I needed to drop that habit.
I needed to get rid of that. That's a big lesson by the way, everyone, just to step back. I think it's not just always the things that you have to do. It's actually something you got to drop.
That's a habit. By the way, that habit could be just worrying. That habit could be over sleeping. It could be drinking much.
It could be a lot of times like, what do I need to do? What's the thing I got to do? Well, maybe there's a thing you need to not do. Also, when you're like, right?
You know, by the way, if you're a guy watching this, there's a lot of you guys watching this. You're young, you're 28, you're 29, you're making a bunch of money. You got 18 different women in your phone right now. And you're successful in spite of the fact that you do that, by the way.
And eventually that distraction, that lack of focus, that stress, that holding it all together, will steal from your business life also. There's a price to be paid somewhere along the line. So maybe it's things you have to stop doing in your life. Now, you said 17.
Your life is so. This could go five hours from me. I know a lot about you, right? I love that.
It's 17. Just correct me when I'm wrong all the way along. Sure. But also it's 17 because there's, listen, you had this hard-working grandfather.
That's an incredible story. And he honors these three men, by the way. He honors Eddie. He honors Joshua who was the OJ's.
No, that was my grandfather. Joshua was my grandfather. His grandfather. His grandfather.
His father was my father. His father was an OJ's. And like literally the day before all the money comes in for the OJ's. And you'll cure him, honor these men and the special.
But also at 17. Yeah. You get another giant piece of news. A lot of guys just go, okay, I'm out.
I'm just, I check out. Like this is, you know, this is devastating news. I'm going to use this story as an excuse to be a really average dude the rest of my life. Exactly.
Now tell them what you find out. I'm saying. Now I'm going to talk about it in my first Netflix special of that ballerina. I talked about it in 17.
I found out who I thought Eddie was my father. I found out it was not my biological father. That I was, he actually adopted me when I was six months old. And there was another guy who I actually knew because he was a friend of the family.
So he was around and I played with his children as friends, not knowing that they were really my half brother and sister. And my mom told me at this age, like this is, this is your real, this is who made you. And you know, yeah, sure, it could have sent me into a tailspin, but it didn't. What it did is it made me understand in that moment the difference between being a father and making a child because that's what my dad is.
Like that's when I say my dad, my father, that's Eddie Arnold, my pain who made me. I call him my maker, you know what I mean? But I will never disrespect my father by giving my pain the title of dad or which he's a dad and father to other children that I know. You know, he's just not that to me.
You know, and so like here's, and this is what I say to people who have come to me and I talk to about things that have happened to us in our life, which everybody gets things that happened that are unfortunate. You find out your dad is this, your parents on drugs. You were abused as I always say this. I hear everything you're saying and I want you to know that you're right, that that was unfortunate and wrong that happened to you and it was painful and unfair.
Now what? Right. Right. We got nobody, everybody stops there, but you got to go past that.
You got to go now what? Because there's no line to getting in for everybody who was mistreated. So you can just stand in line and be like, everybody who had a bad childhood come over here and give you a stipend for the rest of your life. It doesn't work like that.
It's true. You have to figure out how to get around that. And that's when I realized after the third time being in rehab, I was laying in rehab, I went to rehab here at the VA in Westwood and here in Los Angeles. And I remember my first night there and I was laying in this big, this huge room that had like tons of, you know, racks beds, you know, bunk beds just lined up into like army barracks.
And it was only me and one other guy across from me. And he was going through withdrawals in the middle of the night. And I remember I was laying there. And I remember saying to myself, I don't belong in here.
And then right behind that was another voice that said, see, this is why you're here because you're arrogant and you think you're better than, but you're not. And then right behind that was a voice that my father, Eddie said to me when I was 19 and I was doing nothing and I was living with him. And he said, the only difference between you and the bum outside is that you live with me. And all of these voices hit me back to back.
And then the next voice was, you've gotten sober for it. One time it was not get kicked out of the Navy. The other time it was for this girl, wouldn't break up with you. Now none of those things, you have none of those things.
So what you gonna do? Do you care enough about you? You did try to do it for the Navy. You try to do it for a girl.
Do you care enough about David to try? And it was in that moment that I realized I did not want to have that I had something greater to do and I wanted to live a different life. That's incredible. You and my dad, by the way, got sober about a quarter of a mile from each other.
Wow, which is crazy. My dad ended up being sober for 35 years. And I was like, I'm gonna get this one more try because I don't want to lose my family. That was his reason when he tried.
Sure. But his reason for staying, he told me later, he goes, I'm actually doing this for me. Yes. I'm doing this for me.
And it's like really, really telling things. I think sometimes really good people are so unselfish or unwilling to give themselves the gift of changing. Sure. And also they love telling that story, that old story.
Wouldn't it be a shame if your whole story was just that, hey, I had this up, I found out my dad was in my dad and I did some coke and I just, that's my story. My story was alcoholic dad and I was like, I just keep telling the story into my fifties. Now by some point, you gotta start writing new chapters of your life. You said something, I write your stuff down.
Oh my gosh. You said, you said, so many people live their lives making excuses. I refuse to live in the shadows of what if. Yeah.
And then you talk about your family wanting to be. Because this is the thing, this sounds really good now. Like, okay, you got all this stuff going on. Yeah.
Nickelodeon show, you're blowing up. Yeah. But I'm picturing this dude kind of going to comedy stores all those years. Yes.
Working on his act. Yes. I picture the guy, I want you to talk about this because you tie it together so frequently in your work where your OJ's dad. Yes, Bobby.
Bobby. He has this deal where you got to get juiced in. You need to tell them this and then I need them to see the special. I'm not going to be able to make your dream come true.
Yes. Kind of become him for a little while. Yes. Necessity.
So just give them this. Please. I want them to pick. There's a lot of people driving on the treadmill and they're listening.
I got a dream and there's no evidence I should keep pursuing this. There's evidence. It's like I'm not profitable. In fact, I'm losing money.
I'm bleeding money. I'm going through my old 401k for money to work somewhere else. Yeah. And the pressure is caving in.
Is this a sign? And maybe it is for some people. Sure. But is this a sign?
How can I pack it in? So take them through that. I just remember coming up as a kid. What was that?
Yeah. I was like, you know what I mean? No. You know what I mean?
One glass of juice per kie per day is what we grew up with. I had never, you know, and of course the comedy is you exaggerated to it. You gave us a drink. You know what I mean?
Which it felt like when I walked in the room he was like, I think you had your glass of juice earlier than eleven, fifteen his morning. I'm like, how do you know that? Right? But like that's how he was.
You know what I mean? So I hated it. But then later in life when I quit my job where I worked full time as a nurse during a day and I started pursuing my stand up and we were just, we were broke. And I just remember starting to have moments where I was like no more generic serial.
like generic cereal. You know, much of children don't even know what cool it is. But I feel like as a black man alone, I fell on that alone. Like, much of children are like, look at the cool, like this.
What is this? Like, you know, they grew with real juice. I'd have real juice until I was 32. These kids been living on real, real juice.
They all like, so like, I literally remember when they were two and four, like, we lived, we cut quarters. We, like, where you, I think Ashley, my youngest, were her oldest sister, Anne Grace's close for the first four years of her life, passed him down to her. She don't know. Yeah.
You know what I mean? So it's little things like that. And I just remember what, like, people don't, I used to stand outside one of the clubs called the Comedy Union, which is no longer there. Well, and it was the club that I, I was an urban club in Los Angeles people in the brain where I spent a lot of time honing my hack.
They're the Comedy Store and the Laugh Factory. And I would stand outside that club and sell DVDs of my stand-up, which was from other places where I recorded different materials, $10 a DVD. And this is not the town that you stand out in front of the club and sell, like, it's because your peers are here. Like, you do that on the road.
When you're doing it in front of the club and town, you really need to money. And I would do it. And my wife tells the story of how I came home one night with $150 because I sold 15 DVDs that night. And she said the pride that was on your face, I will never forget and I remember that now, you know, and it's like, so now when our lives are different, it makes me think about those times and realizing that you have to, I had to go through that to see how much I love it, how much I want it.
If it's in me, if I got that thing, you know what I'm saying? Like that's, and I do and that's why I'm still here. This phrase you use all the time, which is funny, but it ain't for the week. No.
And it's not like winning, winning, life, breaking through, winning for the week. It just isn't. And I don't know that a lot of people are looking for techniques instead of this internal fortitude to strength this get up and go, right? There's this is a part of people that are successful that that you've got to dig for that in your life.
Don't you also think I want to ask you this, I'm not spiritual or religious, you are, but maybe like this is just the time you were ready for this now. Yeah, I know. I know. I would elaborate a little bit.
I'm pitching you a 31 year or two. I'm like, I want to know. Oh, yeah. No, no, I wouldn't be married.
I would, you know, none of these things would be what it is. I 100% knowing that getting this in my 50s is when I when I needed it, when I should have it. My daughters are at the age where they need me in ways that they didn't need me before. My wife, all of the things, you know what I mean?
Like it's not, it's not lost on me that the creator, the higher power, whatever works for you brought these things into my life at this time in my life because I even if they're walking through the airport in Atlanta, I had it here and I got stopped maybe four times for pictures to say hello and it feels great. It really feels great. I'm not going to lie. It feels fantastic for people to recognize something that I've been working on every day for 28 years.
It feels good. But there is a, there's a glass ceiling to that feeling. It only goes so far. You know what I mean?
Because I can see beyond that. I do. And for so many years, I've been in this town watching people blow up and go away. That's so true.
And I've seen people be famous but broke. And I don't want to be any of those things. Anybody ever think you're Maxwell? No.
So you have got to hurt his own brother. Yes, I've heard that. Yes, I've heard that. Any light skin.
Oh, the bone structure. I've just had all you guys. Just Google Maxwell and then watch. They tell me tell me there's just a little shit that I'm right about it.
Okay, just trust me. All right. So even you know what I said. There you go.
There you go. So I'm curious what this process is like. I want them to go through this grind with you. You have an hour act, right?
So and I speak and I know what it's like to even get tired of hearing from myself. What does it look like when you start creating material all the way to the special? How many hours go into this? Are you when are you writing one of the concepts come up?
How many sets do you have to do to where you're like this? Is tight now? I own this. This is the creative process to have one special thing.
It's underestimated. It's just the amount of precise grinding and working required to become outstanding at what you do. Yes. That part of the process.
Yeah, that's a great question. You know, every every comedian is different. Some people come in and say, I don't write nothing down. It's all, you know, I'm not that person.
I'm not that good. I my bits come from being in the moment and living and having experiences, you know, when you experience, you're going this could be a bit. Yes. Okay.
I'm all comedians are very introverted people. We we're very on top of everything we're thinking and feeling like everything like all the information that comes at us as it's coming to us, we're evaluating and getting our opinion on it in our head like so any interaction with you my wife, like constantly that's just where I'm at. Right. And so like for me, when I started going out and working out for to do any for the week, I went I think we did I want to say we did 30 cities, which is comedy clubs and you know, I do five shows a weekend.
So you take that 30 times five is about 150 sets right? Hour and 20 minutes is normally what I'm on stage doing. And you know, you do this again and again and again and I record all of my material. I record every set that I do and I go back and when I'm on the treadmill or I'm in the gym the next day working out I listen to it.
So I go, oh, that's good. Nope, that's no good. I don't need that. Get that like it's work.
It's a process and that's I do it again. It's like, you know, it's like how you get told again again, again, again, again, like that's literally it. I think the tolerance for that is for very few people. I mean, it's like show sales people their listeners right now.
Like, are you that on your presentation? Are you that on your clothes? Are you that on your nuance? I don't want you to be like, huh?
Even some of your transfers of your laughing and the rhythm and how you keep it together. Chappelle, my legs, right? These are little things that if you're watching the best of the best, you should be breaking them down in the subtleties of what they do. Sebastian, the meniscalco will go very long.
Me too. Won't go that very long until he moves his body a particular way, right? He's not a standstill guy. Nick Saban for Alabama says, we don't practice until we get it right.
We practice until we can't get it wrong. That's right. And it's just a different standard of the best. And David, you guys is the best.
For me right now, it's the best set that I've watched maybe ever, but certainly as long as I can recall that, you know what? I tell like, because I teach one of the largest standup comedy classes in the country and I've been doing it for 10 years and I stopped doing it during the pandemic. I have well over 300 plus people on my waiting list and I'm about to do a seminar. I haven't done it in two years.
I'm about to do it in like next month and we're just doing two days and I miss it because I love talking about the art of standup, you know, and one of the things that I tell people when I do my standup, it's my it's it's in my muscle. It's in my muscle memory. Like when I start to do material, I start to tell stories. I'm in a certain place when I hit this joke when I'm like, there's it becomes that where it's locked in, but there's still enough room for me to be David.
There's still enough room for it to be the same, but it's a little different. You know what I mean? And so like even now, like working on I'm working like the night I did it ain't for the week that night. I have not done any of that material since then.
I'm not one joke. And the next day, the next week I was on to and I'm doing a new tour called Paysia self now and I've been out. And I literally have not done what and I'm doing a whole new hour and 20 minutes. Now this is the benefit.
This comes from having done standup for 28 years under the radar. Nobody seen me. So they don't know that I'm like this. This cage to animal that's been working forever.
And now I'm finally getting a chance to run out in a while. It's amazing to me. You know, it's one of the best stories ever because you know, although you have had this financial success, you were talking about this notion of all this time under the radar to be that good. Now let me ask you this by the way, one little lesson he said there's one I had everyone just so there was listening.
I think I'd be obsessed. So like it's really calm. He's really never offered you like you're with your family, your present. But like you're still looking for your craft in it.
I can't help it. Right. That's the greats and anything like I can't. By the way, you entrepreneurs like there's healthy obsessions in life.
And like so no matter what I'm ever doing when I'm watching someone do some I'm watching them speak. I'm watching for a business club watching the television like that strategy would work in this business. I've got it's never far from me. I'm always amazed by people say I want to be the best or I want to be great or I want to be a millionaire.
Yes. They're willing to escape their craft for long periods of time. I can't do it. Me either.
And then I'm on vacation. I'm still sort of in my mode looking at people picking up stuff that would be inspiring that might be a business. I could solve that problem with this product. It's always there.
Yes. Always because it's who you are. Yes. And you can't when it's when it's when what you do is who you are you can't turn it off.
Yeah. You know what I mean? Like I can't like my family knows when they're around me like here he goes. That don't start like if I pull out my phone and start texting and what they're talking about.
I don't that's not gonna be a bit like they know when it hits me in the moment like because I see life through a different mediums we see life through a lens that civilians do not. That's just how we're why I've been wired like that. Like the more unfortunately the more tragic it is the quicker comedy comes to us like we have friends who have died in the in the comedy community that passed away. If you're on some of these texts threads with us comedians, it's dark right away in me like everybody's waiting for how long before we can like how long do we just and you see the funeral home behind you in the rear view mirror.
Let's go like we start like knowing that the comedian who passed away if they were here would be on that thread. They'd be laughing their ass. Exactly. I remember when Norm died immediately good friends of mine.
I was on some threads with him. Wow. My God. No, Bob's like it.
Who I have a chance to work with same thing like right away. But it's just because it's in us. It's who we are. And if you are a salesman if you whatever you do if you work if you're a trainer if you are a nutritionist you see life through a different lens.
You just like you somebody will bring you a what could look like a beautiful meal to me and a tran nutritionist look at that and go all the sodium look at something I will never see. Yeah exactly right. Yeah. Those are people that are great.
Those people that are great. There's no say this whole thing in personal development around us like you need to be present where you are completely believe that. It doesn't mean like you probably have this to even with my kids like I do sometimes I need to consciously put this phone down. Oh my gosh.
Sure. But at the same time I never escape who I am even in those moments. I might not type it that minute I'm going now this would be something inspiring. I'm just I'm sorry.
I'm not it's not coming off. I think we'll take this stuff to literally where they like escape their business or their craft like this is part of like I don't what I'm dead. I would like to be remembered for some of these things someday right. Nice.
Do you ever think about like I suffer still if I'm being honest from some imposter syndrome no matter how far down the road I've gone to whatever success there is or isn't that I've had I still feel like this could go away tomorrow and I work to keep it away. Now I don't know if that's an unhealthy thing or a healthy thing but this idea I don't have like this notion like I've made it or this is it or I'm here. I'm just wondering how you are on that like you have a little bit of that. I'm running towards something but I'm also running away from being broken again.
I'm running away from being irrelevant again. Sure. I think I probably because I'm still not where I want to be I'm not where I don't think as much about it going away yet. You know I think when you maybe hit like I don't know a certain pinnacle you might be I don't feel that as much as I feel like I'm I have more that I want to do and I'm continuously looking for ways to accomplish things that I want to accomplish.
Is this always cracked up to be? Really. Answer that real like where you got here 25 years ago you had this vision of hey I'm going to have I'm going to be writing on all these TV shows I'm going to have the number one show on Nickelodeon I'm going to have a special that everyone on the planet's talking about there wasn't any social media but man I'm going to walk through airports people are going to know me I'm going to buy a Porsche like you did last week with this thing right like all the stuff that I know wait it's sort of so much I know it's creepy but but is it what it's cracked up to be or not yet. Not not yet this is this is what it is and this is what I believe and I'm like I said I it's not I'm not done I know I have so much more to do but what I can say is that and I heard over talk about this and you hear people say it and you don't believe it until you get there but it truly is about the journey.
It really is about the job I want to be broke again right but I and I do want like you know I'm just like I'm starting theaters in the next month right and going from how many close to theaters which is you know small theaters just because I can't I guess I do have a fear because every time I might agents call me with another gig I always think nobody's coming yeah every time yeah every time that I'm doing I'm doing Pittsburgh to Carnegie music hall in Pittsburgh nobody's coming like that's all I can like that thought yeah keeps me up in the middle of the night sometime I love that though but that is also the thing that makes me get up and create I think that's one of the elements of that thing yes I guess one of the little subparticles of that thing yes they're like a great I do I just feel like it's something that I always expose like a little different look everyone's recipe and formula of success or bliss or happiness is somewhat different sure but there are I think if you cut open you myself anybody else that might be achieving beyond what a lot of people thought they would yes there are elements of if you cut us open that are very there's this sounds hokey but there's this our hearts similar this part I mean it's corny but like this part of a champion this will this will my new I might even be writing about this next I said this talk I gave called my will to win is not for sale meaning you I think a lot of people in life you could have done this if this precious beautiful family this amazing wife who's stayed by you through difficult times and yes you these beautiful daughters and I've got a beautiful family as well there could have been people would not have criticized you had at some point 15 years ago you just gone look man I may run at it and it just didn't break through right go back to be in nursing I'm gonna go summer Sadie right right like and no one probably would blame you for that but there was this thing in you this is what I'm watching this man perform I was like this dudes will is different he wouldn't sell his family's dreams he wouldn't sell his dreams most men most women they can be bought with enough failure their will can be bought there's a price tag they're unwilling to pay no the price tag just gets too high yes right and that's a poverty mentality by the way when I was broke when I went shopping I didn't get the thing I wanted I could think I could afford so I would flip price tags what's it costs what's it costs what's it costs I think in life if you're obsessed with what something's costing you you you're going to lose but if you become obsessed with whether it's worth it then that's different that's true and for me I think most people by the way winning can buy someone's will to win you've seen us in sports guy wins fights like crazy the way champion the world gets there the will is been bought with that belt with a couple bucks yes and that's the people that you described earlier in my opinion that go away that become broke that are famous you start to believe the things that people are telling you yes you know I mean like I even like you've said some fantastic things about me which I truly not only agree with that part of the unsuccessful is also believe it that you deserve to be there yes you know and I agree with it but it does not fuel me or fool me to believe that there's not more and or that this can go away very quickly because I eventually at all go eventually come down exactly the curtain comes down on every show mmm Michael Jackson was one of the biggest shows ever that's right and the curtain comes down Frank Sinatra some of the best Joe Montana like some of the Mike Tyson the greatest ever at whatever it is you do Michael Jordan the curtain always comes down and what you have to look at is the things that I did did I give it my all and was I the best I could possibly be listen I could stop today and I can tell my children that I was successful when I moved to LA I had two trash bags of clothes and three addresses to three comedy clubs that's it I didn't have any friends I didn't have anybody to tell me amen you know you should go nothing and I walked from the rehab which people did not know to their to the Comedy Store which is like five miles to go do open Mike and sometimes I went there it was the wrong day you were performing and I had to walk back but I did it every single time that I knew that that microphone was there oh wow and nobody knew and there was times when I got on I showcase for Mitzi the Comedy Store one time and I got in because I was ready I showcase for Jamie at the laugh after one time and I got in because I made sure that I have been doing stand up in other places little bars everywhere I could get up so when I got a chance to go where I really wanted to go I was prepared whoa you know what I mean so like all was I don't I don't get caught up in a lot of you know the hype of a lot of it because there's still so much more I want to do but you were willing to do things most people were willing to do but this is confirmed stuff there's a part of his special everybody where he's becomes his grandfather and you're talking about he gets you know I was six years old I'm you know I'm 40 I started working I was four years old it's hilarious but then there's this part I wondered I was gonna ask you this where you talked about he's not lazy yeah and he walked so there you were actually referencing something that was true and special about your walking that was that was a true story I mean like that was I remember walking there's a distance between the Comedy Store and the Laugh Factory on Sunset which I don't know maybe it's a mile and a half maybe two miles I'm not sure but I've walked that hundreds of times since I've been here like back and forth maybe I get on stage here no I can't get on stage here so and I remember walking at night back and forth between these clubs and I remember thinking about Grandfather and I knew that he knew that I was not lazy like I was when he like he used to call me when I was a kid that's nine and didn't want to work in late asphalt all day but I just had to find that thing inside of me that was worth it for me to walk okay I want to find out because he knew me can cry so I want to find out what stuff is kind of true and what stuff is stretched out okay so you first off I'm just picturing this man walking with his family little girls at home or whatever just rooting for him to make it like I just pictured this dude right they did that not at all yeah my children don't even know I'm rooting for you back then it's what I'm saying right but maybe such a great visual maybe it's good for them to hear this though like I know a lot of it but I mean that's just remarkable that you would do that for you and your family yeah but this idea that were you really so I'm just picturing this guy like those either sitting there going this is not gonna happen for me a picture guy who's using drugs yeah it's been arrested multiple times this is all true right yes okay by himself many years later now he's still walking to get gigs right yes don't it was it was any of the part about you being incarcerated for nine days whatever is that actually true 100% story bake or sale I got I got arrested for a fix a ticket I was driving a car that did not have blinker I know it didn't have seat belts on it they wanted me to put seat belts in the car I found it cost $600 to put seat belts in a car I paid $600 for it I'm not gonna do that so I'm like I'm gonna try this car so it falls over and it did and I left it on the side of the road I just walked home and I never thought about that car ever again and I was somewhere drinking with my friends at Edwards Air Force like two years later and they ran my name in a warrant came up and it was a fix it ticket that it turned into a warrant so they took me to a baker's field and kept me in jail for seven days and I just I realized that I ain't got it that ain't that ain't about that life one of the funniest things I've ever heard sure it's like they didn't want to get out of jail all of that is true the salt they've come up the store out tell me what I tell you please this is unreal so this is how disconnected I was from this world okay they need to know this to compare to where you are now so you get locked up for a car you just left somewhere yes to your Fc goes I just left it okay and then I went to jail like two years later I got picked up party with my friends they ran our name my name came up they took me up and they get one's county can only hold you for so long for another county they're not coming LA is not coming to get me they're not you know really real criminals this guy had a he didn't have seat belts you know and oh okay come on he's coming to get you and they took my ticket only homie for seven days I knew I was gonna have to do seven days and I sat there for seven days and for seven days I the hardest part of being in there was eating that food without any salt that is what I was like I can't I can't live in the world with no seats like literally that is who I was and my mother was like what is wrong with you like you're not worried about any of the other things that can happen they're raping people in there people are getting shanked and you're complaining is that there is no salt that's who I was real and just flash that forward to now it's just like probably even for you it's funny but to hear from an outside perspective like my god it's a remarkable life it's a remark and it's a testimony to like just wanting something so bad isn't it and working so hard at it yes it's that thing and I st in was crazy is like and I don't know and maybe you can tell me how sometimes I'm afraid to say out loud what I really want because I'm afraid that I'm going to fail and not get it yes so I don't say it out loud yeah it's not out there yep and therefore I didn't fall short yeah like and I'm gonna say this for the first time here I want to play an arenas okay I never said that out loud okay I can see on your face look at you I never said that I believe that I have it the work ethic that I put into my craft deserves it and I'm good enough and so like now as I'm going out to performing these you know these these thousand twelve hundred maybe the biggest is eighteen hundred seed venues and I'm nervous that I'm like I'm gonna be performing for 300 people in a venue that I was 18 like that is my biggest fear right that even if even if that is the case that still will not stop me you know I mean like I like I remember standing in I remember performing in New York at danger fields I needed to do a half hour to get the hundred and fifty dollars I needed for my rent that night and it was a room that held 350 people and it was two people in audience and I did that I did that time the week after my this last Netflix special it ain't for the week I put it in a can I'm in a theater and Cleveland the next week I'm in Columbia South Carolina room holds 400 people there were nine people in the audience I did an hour and forty five minutes that night I had one of the best as I've ever had in my life because I knew now that I was in my element so I know what I want to do and I've never said that I love this is why I do what I'm doing I'm gonna be there when you do it I'm gonna be there when you do it and we're gonna we're gonna help you do it I see it on your face like it's really deep in you you yeah I didn't I didn't get into this business to be one of the people that oh yeah he's funny too I got into this business to be one of the best storytellers and to be one of the funniest people and to cut across all nationalities all ages of everything because I believe that the standard I mean the stuff I do is family and life and to me that's that universal let me say something to you one you I am blessed I do get to sometimes speaking big arenas so I kind of when I watch people it's man I just wish I was recording the conversation the night that I watched you because it doesn't matter you wouldn't believe me anyway but I literally said this dude should be in the arenas like Sebastian is right for a couple reasons yeah one you already have the type of you know there's a different projection a different energy to fill a big room than it is a small room sure you already kind of oh you fit the room sure you could easily overwhelm a room like you have the presence and the charisma and energy to do 50,000 people if you wanted to that's number one the other thing you do that's really uniquely nuanced you do cross over you do meet everybody yet you do it in a way and this is really unique where although you're completely aware of who you are still so although you do reach all demos some people do that by sort of a lack of authenticity about who they really are still very clear who you are so very clear where you come from sure still really clear how you were raised yet you are able to nuance that in such a way that you do reach all different types of people so it could be black white Hispanic Asian religious non-religious 65-year-old laughing their ass off at your content or a 19 years old laughing about stuff yes it's so that's absolutely a fact for you and we're gonna help you do that I like I can see how a big deal is that more important to you than even like being on TV being in a movie being like that um the the movie the movies have never been something that I was like I want to be in a movie like I've always wanted to be a dad on TV because my grandfather my dad those were the funniest people in the world to me you know and the examples that we saw from the TV fathers I grew up with Bill Cosby was one unfortunately you know it comes with an asterisk next to it now but I still connected to that character and you know that's what I've always wanted to do I the two things I've always wanted to do was to when I put when my name goes up on a marquee I want people to see it in one a comment know that this dude is gonna take us through deliver it's an experience yes it's gonna be fun I've been one of the thing I'm gonna stop complimenting you there's no usually when you listen to an album somebody I'm sure he's a girl like these two songs play well exactly to the six fillers exactly a lot of comedy special like hey you gotta hear him say these two bits right these are the jokes right that is not yourself every freakin minute is full there are no down ones it's I'm telling you it's experience and that's why I wanted to see what's he like in person to which is exactly the same way I'm a couple more things I want to ask you to do valuable of a brain not to pick it some more what do you tell your daughters about either life or success they're watching you there's some notoriety aspect of yours but like I could tell there's a closeness there that's pretty remarkable with your family obviously your wife is an amazing woman she is and I love what she says even the documentary about you maybe the two of you were like soul mates born with each other you know she says that you know sure on the good days from the bad day she's she was a question but what do you what do you do you have those conversations with your daughters about success or life or what do you tell them sure I listen success every this is something I was gonna start earlier when I was telling you about where I came from the clothes a trash bag of clothes success is is relative to everybody's life you know I mean like success does not mean that I have to be an arenas I started with two trash bags and three comedy clubs if I never do any more than I did right now I'm successful I started with nothing and I have two very good stand-up specials and I can make a great living perform in a comic club the rest of my life and that's what I wanted to do I'm successful I think that success is relative to who you are I tell my daughters that all the time you have to decide what you deem success to be because success for one person could mean I'm not successful unless I win six NBA titles some people success could be I just made a live-and-play basketball and I put my family through college and I did all the things my grandfather like I said owned an asphalt company with an eighth-grade education to put all of us through college some medical school we have physicians and all in my family and this from a man who had a great education he was successful big time he was so my grandfather was so successful that kind of like that he drove us to church in every week that it key was there was nobody more successful than my grandfather my dad an engineer and a race car driving 72 years old right now my father he pulls his race car with his pickup trailer all around the country and drives he all his pit crew and his friends have passed away but my dad still goes out there and races by himself he's successful he is a sister who's a school teacher she's blind she's really blind she's super successful because she's living her dream so I think success is that when you're the life you're living matches your expectations and vision for it and for you and I it just it's we're hard to be married to you sometimes too because like it's gonna keep growing you know it's expanding it's not going to be like hey wait a minute I thought this was it not then we were gonna relax like right it's not it's the journey it's not just one place I want to see I want my own expansion as a person yeah my reach you know what makes me happy by the way Eddie your dad mm-hmm my dad's name is Eddie also oh but my but he reminds me the way he carries himself in your documentary of my dad I can't quite put my finger on it but there's a my dad had a even though my dad was a drinker you know when he was it so was my dad's kind of just this over now too right Eddie it's interesting yeah I don't know there's a my dad had a dignity or an elegance to them but just I like to kind of have pride yeah pride and I saw that in your dad just in a little interactions you had with him that's my dad yeah I want to ask you a couple more things so fascinating about you and your daughters is it accurate because I you seem to have this great marriage was there really a really you're in the fat ballerina you talk a little bit about a bumpy time yeah in your marriage of course what what really changed it like how have you built a good marriage like that people listen to this you're like hey I'm blowing up in my career my truth is every time most people ask me how do I get the support at home in other words oftentimes their their their career success seems to be creating friction in their relationship no not good no okay well my wife is a performer my wife was the third African-American woman to dance online with the New York Radio City Rockets she was a rocket when I met her she was when my wife my wife also toured and danced with Jimmy Buffett in his band the core river band she was in his band for five years my wife has done many Broadway tours she's done hundreds of commercials she hosted a TV show on ABC called Made in Hollywood she's knows this business she's she was successful when I met her she was way above and beyond what I was doing my wife was flying around a private Jets when I met her with Jimmy Buffett you know I was like I remember all the way to one juice right exactly what I remember when I met my wife I'm like you come see me perform I'm at I'm gonna be at the comedy store in the belly room about you know hold about AC and my wife for a long time never told me what she did and then one day she was like you know I'm gonna be performing in Vegas I went she's tripping right I went to Vegas and she had these tickets they left for me I'm like where you perform she said MGM Grant and I said what I walk in her Jimmy Buffett on stage you know I got the jumble trunks yeah camera hits my wife and she winks because she knows I'm out there somewhere and I said I gotta have it I gotta have it so like when you have a woman who knows I've never once ever heard anything from my wife except for keep going go do it do it you got it I love it now do we argue yes we argue we we we almost got a divorce you know many years back because you know of life I mess you know I messed up as men do I've done all the wrong things I'm I called her father and told her father that I messed up I called her parents and told them I want that's the thing that comes with being sober and you know I'm not afraid to be wrong yeah I'm not afraid to be wrong I'm like I did these things but let me explain to you why and we had our whole way we went through a lot of stuff but I think and now me and my wife argue like we argue we'll argue in front of you you know I mean I think I talk about that in a special like that's who we are like we do we are the most real people and yes sometimes I want to leave and sometimes she wants me to leave but I don't know where it is how it is we me and my wife can have a drop down drag out fire of an argument and then soon it's over it's like so what we what you want to eat that's awesome though I don't know how we got there I think it's because I don't know I don't know but I think people don't take I don't think people in anything in life having appreciation for like experience and longevity together even in anything like some of the reasons you're successful in your comedy career is like you just got a ton of experience yes I've experienced like 28 on tap to you know like that's that's there's that's a really really big deal same in a relationship like if you just got experience together over time yeah there's a depth how I married 25 years yeah I've been married 19 I met my wife when I was five and we dated in high school that's no joke yeah I know wait what you were five yeah yeah literally we didn't you know we were the same school but she grew up down the street for me we went really together yes yeah yeah it's crazy I know and by the way from well we grew up in Southern California I was born in Boston but I grew up in Southern California I'm doing a Wilbur theater and also you're doing some of the things in Massachusetts that are really cool going up like today you're like unbelievable all right last thing I want to ask you first I want to have you back when you do your next special oh my not I want to have you back when you when we're doing arenas I want to make sure that I have you back no pressure no I said it out loud there's been very few people listen I've done hundreds of shows I've got you know I've got a family and businesses and speaking and all the stuff that I do and I got my own show out right now nosy change with it my nosey but I got to tell you I'm like a super interested in you obviously I feel like I know maybe a creepy amount of information about you at the stage or only knowing who you were for a little bit of time but like I know a lot by the way that we got through like 5% of my questions what yeah because I know so much about you but let me ask you this last someone ran into you with Starbucks right now yeah right they've listened to the show like I was really inspired by your story but type of life you're living what you break through the struggles you've had you're upbringing all of it the way you communicate obviously your heart to you's tell your good man this guy was in jail for a week and now he's you know the best special on the planet earth it's unbelievable and they said hey I want to be successful and I'm just like I'm just tread water right now and could you I get that you say to me that might nudge me for could be any piece of information anything I should remember anything I should think or do I mean just anything if I had two minutes I would say that what you're feeling is exactly what you're supposed to be feeling because anything worth anything is not supposed to be easy it's supposed to be hard it's supposed to make you feel like you feel which is maybe I shouldn't do this maybe this is a mistake maybe I should quit nobody around me believes in you and the hardest part is sometimes the people that are closest to you will be the ones that will give up on you first even your agents even your your like if that's real you have to want what you want hard enough that cuts through all of that and you have to find that thing and whether or not you have that thing that makes this thing that you want not having it unacceptable it has to be you can't you have to be able to go can I live without it can I go to bed at night wake up one day knowing that I was I said I wanted to do something and I gave up and I'm okay yeah with going I do that one go yeah I can't do that either not for not for something or something why I'm gonna jump out of plane yeah fine I'm a pest that right you know me but like there's some things that that some things are not negotiable and there's some dreams that are not for sale oh boy that's really really good really really good yeah I don't even want to add to that except for that negotiable part negotiate the price in advance yeah I know your worth one of my favorite conversations of all time dude I gotta be honest with you I've been on it like a little tour doing a lot of media stuff you know because for the special you know when you sit and talk to somebody who really has done their homework yeah you know and I did this thing I watched a lot of your work and I was like this dude is like it's firing on a different frequency thank you and everybody does not do that I know when I meet someone I'll know the rest of my life and I'm gonna know you're there I feel like that I agree I just feel like that I hope I'll live you but having said that you look like you go into this dude is in shape you're a great to I said you look like Maxwell the best complex I could ever give you in your life trust me everybody so where you want to go where do you want to go we want to go get you on the road on this tour so we start filling up a man not David A Arnold calm right now the tour is called pace yourself you can see obviously you can go you have to put in a lot of people put in David Arnold if you put it if you put in David Arnold you're gonna get the white guy that does the soundtrack so James Bond that ain't me you got to put in David a Arnold you can get me on social media is all across the platform and if you go to my website it'll take you right to the cities where we're going and this is just a first half like the next we haven't even announced the the back you know I'm gonna drop an email for you I told you that guys listen to me his social media is so damn entertaining you're gonna be one of just as your life will be enriched by it and by the way go get it in for the week on Netflix and that girl Laila on Nickelodeon is another one show on there right now it's just got a lot going on right now so I'm really grateful you made the time it's not getting between flights of the year so glad to see you man I'm looking forward to lunch and every I mean to all right everybody God bless you share this show today you know this one's gonna be fire to be viral share with many people's can't go get the power one more my book it's still out there in the world God bless you max out this is the end mileage