Ms. Pat

This episode is sponsored by Helix Sleep. If you go to helixsleep.com, you take their sleep quiz. It takes like a minute. Are you a back sleeper? Are you a back or side sleeper? Side. Same? Funny you ask, okay? Thanks. Because I used to be a side sleeper all my life, but the last three weeks, both my sides hurt. I forced to sleep on my back, and I never could, and I'm doing it now. And the only reason I'm doing it now is because I'm on a Helix mattress. Also, I've told you about this. Are you putting a pillow under your legs? No. I'm telling you, Dad. Put pillows under your legs. It puts pressure off your lower back. I love Helix mattresses. They will mail the mattress to you. Aunt Lauren has one. Right. Teddy got one. Teddy got one. We got one here and in the guest room. We got one here and the guest room. People are loving their Helix. Mark, if you want to try one at your place, you get a 120-day money-back guarantee. Go to helixsleep.com slash TISO for 20% off site-wide. 20% site-wide. That's helixsleep.com slash TISO. helixsleep.com slash TISO for 20% off site-wide. You know what I mean. What's the site? Do it. Helix Sleep. Helixsleep.com slash TISO for 20% off the site. Hi, baby. Do you want anything to drink? I got waters. I got caffeine drinks, teas, coffees, et cetera. No, I'm good. What do you want me to get? Over here. You sure this is okay? I'll bring him upstairs. He's fine. All right, cool. Okay, you got a friend. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, baby. Talking to me? No. I was talking to him. Oh, okay. See, you got to calm down. That's all. I don't want you biting my hand. I'm a big fan. I'm a big fan. You got to calm down. My mama used to love these dogs. Yeah, you got to get a massage, ain't you, baby? Mm-hmm. All right. Have you ever met your new friend? You want to go home with me and get you a black Thanksgiving? He always has a black Thanksgiving. Where? Wherever. All Thanksgivings are black Thanksgivings. No, they're not. Lies, you tell it. Then you don't have enough advocates around. For a limited time, our listeners get 15% off their first order at theperfectgene.nyc. Plus, you get free shipping or Google the perfect gene and use code TISO15 for 15% off. That's 15% off for new customers at theperfectgene.nyc with promo code TISO15. That sounds like a pretty good deal. After your purchase, they're going to ask where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. James, you owe me a Red Bull. Double jinx. I want a pair of perfect jeans. Fuck your khakis and get the perfect jean. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com slash TISO for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, make sure to use offer code TISO for 10% off. Off your first purchase of a website or domain. Jinx. We used to be in sync, dude. That's code TISO. We're going to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Jake. Rick, I think you're so funny, man, but it's like you're too contained. I want to see you on the loose. I want to see Ricky on the loose. But I want to see you do an hour and like outside of LA. Is that possible? Ricky's on the loose. Starting January 9th through 11th, Phoenix, Arizona. January 23rd and 24th, Pittsburgh, PA. February 7th, San Francisco for two shows. February 26th and 28th, Denver. Colorado, March 26th to 28th, Houston, Texas. May 1st and 2nd, back in my hometown, Cleveland, Ohio. And the next weekend, May 7th and 9th, Irving, which is really kind of, my understanding, close to Dallas, Texas. More cities are being added now. Go to punchup.live slash Rick Glassman. Sign up for my email list. I'm just going to let you know if I'm coming within 50 miles of your city and get tickets there. That's punchup.live slash. That's right, Rick Glassman. Will you snap so we can go out? We'll see you in a minute. John DeWalt and Allison Buzma. I love them. They've been with me a few seasons now. Yes, I think three. And also, through them, I met Pat Walsh, who's also a friend of mine. I love Pat. He runs the show. So I've been hearing about your show for, I've been hearing some rumblings for years. And to be candid, I didn't watch it until I knew you were coming on. Really? Did you enjoy it? Love the show. Well, thank you. Love the show so much. I watched so many of the episodes. Oh, wow. And the end, the end of season four is, to me, respectfully, an act break. Because what's happened, I mean, obviously, you guys did that on purpose. But it's, I mean, it's our Fresh Prince moment, right? Yes. I mean, was that talked about in the writer's room? Do you even know? Yes, it was. It was. But it was also very much true to me because my daughter, my oldest daughter felt that way about her daddy. And my son don't. I mean, my son. I don't know what you, I don't know what you're just. You're talking about the finale? Yeah, but I saw what happened with this and I wasn't present with you anymore because I was debating if I'd get a lint roller or not. No, you're fine. I'm just knocking some hair off of him. He's fine. I have a dog. Okay. No. So with the finale of season four, the Miss Pat show, that rung home for me because my daughter feels that way by her real father. My first two kids have the same daddy. And my other son is like forgiving and understanding, my oldest son. And my daughter's like, hell no. We're not, I'm not dealing with this dude. And he's sick. So that's mainly why we killed him off the show. Kidney stuff? Is that all the same? No, he has heart problems. Wow. In real life. We could have told you that years ago. What do you mean? I was making a small heart joke from based off of at least the character of him on television. Yes. Is that all true? The shooting you? Was that him? Yes, that was all true. Yeah. He shot me in the back of the head when I think I was 15 or 16. A lot of people, and I don't like this, but a lot of people I read were blaming you. They said it's your fault because you didn't duck fast enough. That's a joke I told. Imagine if all my questions were just backwards engineering all your bits. I see I have to pay attention to you. Oh, how respectful. So I've known your comedy. I mean, I've seen your, I've seen your stuff where I just hadn't seen the show. The show is genuinely, it's, it's so, it's, I'll tell them, it's so good. It's also hard to find, right? I mean, I mean, BET Plus, I think is the only place you could, you could get it. No, you can get it on Amazon. It's on Amazon. Is it on Amazon? Yes. To stream free? Yes. It's on Amazon. Good to know. And it's also on Well, it would be Paramount then, right? Roco and all of those too. So I grew up on multicams. And then I don't know if I changed or the format changed. I think the format changed. The format changed. I don't watch them anymore. I mean, don't knock on them. I just don't watch them anymore. They don't make them like that anymore either. This felt like multicam, like I'm going to keep, I mean, I've watched so many episodes, but I'm going to keep watching. I mean, this felt like a multicam that I grew up watching and I don't know why. Do you? Well, that's what we was going for. Like old school TV, like a long year. I was on a multicam years ago and that's what we all, they all, everyone's going for that. Well, let me say this to you. TV had a purpose back in the day. When Norman Lear created Good Times and The Jeffersons, they had messages. We got away from that in TV. I think it was just a bunch of old made up stuff. You know, it was never about what the person at home was watching, was going through. So when you're watching something and you really can't relate, you're not interested in it anymore. And I think the reason why Ms. Pat feel like an old school sitcom because we talk about the things that going on in the world like TV used to do back in the day. You Fresh Prince did it. The Jefferson did it. Good Times did it. All of the shows did it. Step by step. I mean, relate to my audience, Ms. Pat. I mean, I'm 53. I don't know how old you are. 29. Huh? 29. Oh, I got two kids older than you. So TV was a lot better back then. And people just got away with, I think over the years, rehashing jokes. You can damn, if somebody really wanted to, they can pull up sitcoms and you will see that same joke in almost every sitcom. Yeah, I would argue that you could see that in almost all stories being told and movies being told. No, not in Ms. Pat's show because I, you, not in my show because I make sure, we make sure that you haven't heard the shit we saying. Maybe one or two, but no, no, no, no, no. And most of it is my standup in the first few seasons anyway. Yeah. I mean, I have so many questions now because I wanted to play with you. I still do. But after watching the show now, like I want to take advantage of this of like, because it's such a well-made show. I want to like ask specifically questions one of them is you started off doing very like stage play your your your opens you were talking there was you see the background that's not lit properly they're frozen and then it goes into the play the sets come in then it evolved into stand up and then just you on the sound stage talking with seeing the people behind why switch from that to that are you talking about episode one you talking about the pilot even season two it was like i remember one of the episodes was you talking to the fourth wall okay so let me tell you the guy who created the miss pat show with me he's a playwright so a lot of times when you see that that stuff that feel like theater that's him all i can do is tell the stories and act and and help out with the jokes but that that's coming out of this 27 year old boy it's great thank you thank you also i told you before but i didn't say on camera i was under the weather last week i'm okay now but i got some stuff going on and if i don't blow my nose i'm gonna be thinking about it oh you blow your nose i gotta get let me get some tissues aside he's really blowing his nose that was a lot of shit in his nose i used to be because i blow my nose loud i remember in high school i was so embarrassed i would go to the bathroom because i remember i said i could blow my nose and the teacher offered me a tissue and i said i mean i have to go to the bathroom because i was so embarrassed i was so embarrassed i was so embarrassed about how loud i blow my nose oh i'm okay now okay so you have a playwright who's doing but but you you see you seem to in season four not do as much of that well you know each season is a little different you know like if you watch the pilot and you see me talking on a plane and you open up and i'm in front of a comedy audience well that came that came to be when i just told him i said uh i had two writers before him and i said nobody ever listened to me i said but i have this concept that i want to use for the pilot i said i at the time i was flying southwest and i said i love to block off a section where it's just white men or white women and have conversation about the real things that's going on in the world you know just like i was you're saying for the show yes so life so that's why if you watch the very first episode i'm on a plane because i used to have conversation with people that i didn't know so what do you think about this and what do you think about this going on in the world because i just wanted to hear other people's perspective that did not look like me how many white writers do you have or not black writers do you have on season one season one i had one white writer but you don't have to be white you have to be right i gotta tell you something because it rhymes i think a lot of people are on board with that but what does that mean yeah i don't care what color you are i just care about how you know how many black people don't been through the miss pass show that didn't come back no no i'm talking specifically about that point of view that you're saying of wanting to just talk to people that don't look like you i'm not saying for the show okay like to write those scenes you know what i mean okay uh the the pilot is you sitting down talking to a white woman about school shootings and the lottery joke which is uh probably written by a black person that happened to me those are the things i said in my stand-up that's why you won the lottery i mean you got paid for that no so i was telling her in the pilot i said um if i can remember it's something about um i think you dropped the turd no that's uh that's i i am positive that that is his pumpkin treat okay and a penis no that's poop oh my god are you serious no you gonna you you getting my goddamn nerve i was like this man i ate a duck not a penis okay no so um we'll ask that question again would it gross you out if i ate poop for the bit yes it would you need more white writers okay um that's why i don't have them so uh you said that so the joke in the pilot is black people don't even uh play the lottery anymore they just wait for one they just wait for uh that's true because you remember when all the police were killing black people just for no damn reason just shooting us in the street pretty much like they do in the hispanic community now remember that every month some young black boy was being killed by the police officer so i said don't even play the lottery just wait till the police assault you or kill you and then you can you can sue for millions of dollars and did all of did all of is that is that true did settlements happen i thought nothing happened from those things yeah a lot of you're not paying attention what happened to the african-american community i'm not paying attention to the african-american community to what's happening to the lawsuits that happen after everything yes a lot of them win for abuse killing them even george floyd family won trevon martin had money given to the family yes if i'm not mistaken yes and then so their family stopped playing the lottery nobody played the lottery it's a it's a it's a joke i know we got to get i'm gonna take responsibility because i'm the host and i'm asking you real questions i understand but i was kidding about that okay yeah okay you just saved me from getting upset i was like god damn yeah i saw that coming and i'm a little sick too so maybe i'm not reading the room perfectly but like i you're so funny and i want to play with you and like i said but i want to ask these questions so we'll settle in a little bit i'll i'll stop making jokes about eating poop okay and i do want to know because you were talking about playwright into each season changing its format and i love the show so much and i missed a lot of that play stuff that you guys were doing earlier on and i was curious how much of that conscious choice was because we wanted to have new stuff every season or because you just went away from it i think with the i think with the uh co-creator he it's i'd really leave that up to him how each season is gonna flow so like if you notice we left you on a big cliffhanger in season four and i think season three we didn't so it's just according to the things that we come up are the stories that we tell so i think it's just according to the things that we come up are the stories that we tell you still did some play like some of the devices i think it was season two you had one where you were talking to your younger self about your hair yes that was based off my life and there was no if you were doing this in a in a single cam or in a movie there would be a different like there was no mirror it was you looking in a mirror but i noticed that there was no effect practically to make it look like you're looking in a mirror there's just a hole in the wall clearly the other actress is there and then you're looking in a mirror and you're looking in a mirror and you're that's where it feels like a play you did in season four too in one of the episodes where uh you were going back is it i don't remember i don't know who it was is it your sister my niece going back to atlanta yeah but but who is it that's that's that's that's um that's selling drugs again that was uh uh that was uh the girl from uh um i know you're talking about that was that was that was my cousin so that was based off a cousin in my real life we sold drugs together and then you got out and she didn't and then she's still that's true and it uh yeah and there she's with uh she was she was giving that same thing to her daughter yeah and then you had there was that device where the lights change and then the two kids come out and you watch it and you said we got out by the way i mean maybe i i i cry i'm a crier but i'm crying in a lot of those episodes and i'm not relating in the way that you said like i don't have the same white people don't have the same relationship with hair as black people do yes and i'm crying thinking about that stuff so when you said that like norman lear stuff and like everyday people could relate to there's something about it and this is me still trying to figure out why don't multi-cams work for me the way they used to that i'm not necessarily relating to the stories um but i do relate to the relationships in them and like the emotions behind them and like i i'm i feel emotional now just like it's it's it's i don't know why i don't i don't relate to some of a lot of those stories and like if i were to want to do a multi-cam what advice would i get from that outside of just you get lucky that it works well i think the great part about the miss pat show is that um you have a uh you have a creator which is me who's based off of my life so i have a lot of unique stories and and another great part is my co-creator is uh tell me his name again i forget his name is jordan e cooper he's a he does a lot of uh he does play he's a playwright so i think with the stories that i've been through in life and with his playwright and his brains together we brought together you know the miss pat show a lot of that stuff looking in the mirror and it was actually a person on the other side i don't think nobody else could have thought of that but jordan because it's in his minds and you know he listened to all the stories that i had to tell in my life me personally if i was if i was directing the episode which i don't care to direct i probably would have put it in a mirror and did a special effect but for having that little girl in front of me to do that scene was so powerful for me i felt it and i think the little girl who was acting me at the time also felt it and it and it you know it trickled down to the audience because by the time that scene was over everybody was in teal i do think there is something to that like a playwright maybe this is an obvious thing because multi-cams are stage plays but i think that's a big part of it it's a play yes And we run it like a play. Yeah. We jump from. we jump from room to room or scene to scene and it's, you know, I'm so grateful that my first show was a multi-cam because I'm a comedian so I needed that audience because when we're just rehearsing, my spirit is just like, oh, when that audience, when those 200 and some people get there on Friday, I'm ready to go. It's just, I come to life because I'm a comic and I think that's the first time a multi-cam has ever been shot in Atlanta, Georgia in front of a live studio audience. So they really appreciate it. My first show was a multi-cam and I haven't been on one since and I miss that. Having an audience there is really special. I love a multi-cam. I've seen, I've been to many tapings of single cam and they're long, they're boring and if you try, to me, when you do a single cam as a comedy, you have nobody to verify that the jokes is funny. Yeah, I get what you're saying. I disagree. It's different. You don't get that audience validation. Yes. But, you know, I mean, when you're with your friends, you laugh. Like, you don't need, I love, I love acting so much and single cam stuff, like when you hear the people behind the camera laughing or when you're laughing during rehearsal, it's a different thing. It's a different sense of acting. Like, I feel like when you're on a multi-cam, it's performance close to stand-up. Yes. Anyway, I just, I feel like the need to defend it because single cam, I mean, do you watch single cams? I'm quite sure I do. Are you not a big TV watcher though? I'm not a big TV watcher. I just love, I love television and there's so many, I mean, New Girl is one of my favorite shows and that's a single cam and there's just, I'm also friends with some of those people and I've seen, like, and also when you watch the bloopers of The Office or something, it's just so much fun but your show is, you don't necessarily cry in every episode. No. But it is one of those shows where it's like, Emotion. Yeah. Every, damn near every episode is emotion. I mean, because it's just, I just want, we want to, I really want to talk about, well, we really wanted to talk about things that everyday people go through. Like, I have an episode where a middle-aged woman got an abortion I've had two abortions myself but I'm going to be honest with you, I didn't have it by my husband or I didn't have it in my 50s but I had a girlfriend that had an abortion when she was in her 50s. So, and, she got pregnant in her 50s? It was close to 50, yes. And it was her choice. And that's why we did the episode. And then when I went to him and I said, I said, you know, Jordan, I know somebody who this happened to. I won't say it but I know somebody who, I won't say their name but I know somebody who this happened to. So, I think we need to talk about that. You know, you, in your late 40s and you get pregnant, you don't want to, some women want to keep the baby and some women don't so it should be all choice. And it was a whole abortion episode. Like, who are you to tell me about my body? Just because I'm married to you don't mean you own me. Don't mean you have the right over my body. I mean, you could be married and get in the bed with your wife and she don't want to have sex with you and you force her to, that's rape. And so that's the message we tried to. I support that point of view. And, you know, that's, that's the message we tried to send. In most of those episodes, especially from season one to three, it's things I had been through or known somebody had been through. And I think that's why the Miss Pat Show resonate with the audience. No matter what color you are, all race of people come over to BET Plus for the Miss Pat Show. Believe it or not, all kind of people. I have more, I'm a very liberal type person, but I have a lot of conservatives that go over there and watch that show and end by me. I love my show. I love your show, Miss Pat, but I don't like that other bullshit you be talking about. But it's okay because I try to create something for everybody. If you believe that people should be able to do what they want with their bodies in real life, would you have a conflict with one of your kids wanting to donate his kidney? No. I mean, for his daddy, I would say my opinion. But if he going to run out there and open his asshole and let them take his kidney for a daddy? I don't think you know how kidneys are taken out. Well, whatever, come out of here. If he want to do it and he's old enough of age, that's fine with me. But I'm a mom, so I'm always going to give you my opinion. I'm always going to try to guide you and tell you what I think is best for you. But in the end, if you're grown, hey, you know what's best for you or you got to go out there and learn it the hard way. I don't remember the details of this story. Also, pardon me, look away. Look away. Okay. But my buddy, my buddy, John, told me. Yeah, like he was naked. Well, Miss Pat is perfect. Almost as perfect as the jeans. Perfect jeans. What I love about the perfect jean isn't just the way they look. I like the way they feel. I like that the waist feels like it's a little bit of an elastic. So it's not like it's going to fall off you and reveal your wing cock or your hairy pussy. But what it will do is make sure it feels like, oh, I could go out to a family and see dinner while wearing pants, but feel like I'm wearing pajamas and I could go to sleep in these in my sloppy cock or hairy pussy. I'm a goblin on the go. I need a kind of jean that's going to be good for me. On stage, being a rock star, being a comedian, sitting down all day in a podcast or at the office. I need my boss, Brad, to not be like, oh, John, when are you going to get some pants on? Jokes aside, because this sounds like we're being silly because of no pants stuff. I do want to say they're a fantastic jean. And my dad is wearing them all the time now. Now, I know what you're thinking. They probably have two or three fits, right? You'll probably have two or three fits. Which ain't bad. You got some options. Six fits. Range from 26 to 50 inch waist. Lengths up to 38, giving you 5,000 plus ways to find your perfect match. At The Perfect Jeans, you never have to force yourself to make jeans work with the body you're, and you might like this word, rocking. Rotten. For a limited time, our listeners get 15% off their first order plus free shipping at theperfectjean.nyc or Google The Perfect Jeans and use code TISO15 for 15% off. That's 15% off for new customers at theperfectjean.nyc with promo code TISO15. After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them that we sent you. You owe me a Red Bull. Fuck your khakis and get The Perfect Jeans. One, two, three, four, five, six, you owe me a Red Bull. You're hilarious. This episode is squandered by Squarespace, Jinx. So, I was at your website a couple years ago before you updated it and it was confusing. I hated it and it seemed like it was pretty complicated to make. Would you agree with any of what I just said? Absolutely. It was just so stressful building an entire website from scratch, dude. Do you speak HTML or do you only speak English and Goblin? Flash. Who even remembers that stuff? What's great about Squarespace is you could go there and you could pick from templates. You could have an AI assist help to kind of just walk you through what you want to do. I was at HTML. That's actually really funny. RickGlassman.com. Check it out. And by the way, Squarespace, I was using Squarespace before they were sponsoring me. It's just simple. It's easy. It's efficient. I like it. I was using Squarespace when they were a circle. Dude, save it for the pod. I go to Squarespace. I go to my account manager. It's all right there. I can go to my pages, my products, my analytics. It's so, not only is it easy to use, not just because I've been using it, it truly is intuitive. You go up, you figure it out. It's very simple. Now, here's the best part. You can go to squarespace.com slash Tyso for a free trial offer. And when you're ready to launch, use offer code Tyso for 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Jinx, you owe me another Red Bull. That was the best part. I'm just going to tell you two again. That's squarespace.com slash Tyso for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use offer code Tyso, save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Now, we're going to go back to Miss Pat. But before we do, I want to ask all my listeners, if you're just listening at home, go get yourself a glass of Paul Newman's lemonade. I love Paul Newman's lemonade with a little bit of ice. Or if you want to put some water in a mug and then pour the water out, and then put it in the freezer, you get yourself a frosted mug, throw in some lemonade in that. I like to put a little lemon zest. You know what I've been doing? I've been blending a lemonade, pineapples, and I mean, I've done it with blueberry. I haven't been doing it, but doing it with blueberry, it was awesome. So anyway, that's Miss Pat on the Take Your Shoes Off podcast. We're coming right back. And not right now, but soon, check me out on GobbleCon's podcast at youtube.com slash gobblecon.nyc. Side. Same? Funny you ask, okay? I forced to sleep on my back and I never could and I'm doing it now. No. I'm telling you, Dad, put pillows under your legs. I love Helix mattress. has one. Right. Teddy got one. Teddy got one. And the guest room. Mark, if you want to try one at your place, you get 120-day money-back guarantee. 20% site-wide. What's the site? Do it. There's a lot of N-words in your show. Yes. And I don't remember if I'm telling the story right. I feel like I have to ask him, but I don't think it matters. But I remember he told me a story where one of the actors, somebody, like it wasn't enough people there during one of the table reads. And he had to play one of the actors that had that word in there a whole bunch. I think this was his first year on it. So obviously he didn't say it, but he said there was so many times. And one, I just think that's really like an awkward, funny situation to be in. But also, I think that's also that word. I mean, I just, I'm in comedy. I have, I grew up watching a lot of black comedians. That word is not just a word in people's act. It's a punchline a lot of the time. Yeah. And it's like a point of view. And it's a very strong thing they're saying. And I'm curious if just like jokes where you go through the run-throughs and like, if a joke falls flat, sometimes, at least my experience, rewrite or cut. And if there is any strategy with that word where it's like, hey, let's not use it here. So it lands here. Does that make sense? Something I never thought about until watching your show because it's, it is a punchline a lot of the time. Well, and it's also, if you notice, we try to curse. We don't just curse to be cursing. You know, it has to make sense. You've seen shows where they're just saying it for no reason. Well, it is hard to know the intention of why somebody's saying it. Sometimes it works. Like I bet you there's some people that watch it and like it and want more swearing. And there's some people that watch it and they get turned off by it. So it's so subjective. So how do you know when that works? We just do us. Because if you try to please the audience, I mean, it's like, it's like if you bake the cake, the people who like your cake is going to come. The people who don't like your cake is going to go away. So pardon me the interruption. This is something I was, I don't mean this specifically for the audience. I'm saying strategy as comedy performers. Is there, are there times where it's written and sometimes it's not, and you just add it for an effect? Sometimes, yes. And then sometimes we remove it. We're like, oh, that's just too much. So, and I tell you, if we write 10 N words in an episode and we hit the flow, and then as we perform it in front of, as we practice it, oh, we'll get together and say, oh, that's just too much. Take it away. So. There's so many layers in it. And it's so interesting and it's not my culture. And even bringing this conversation up, I'm asking, cause I'm curious as a, as a writer, but like, I mean, there was one of them where it was being said and then you, I mean, Quentin Tarantino uses that word a lot. And there was a bit where you call your son Quentin Tarantino Negro. And it was just like, there's so many layers and bits to this. It's, it's truly, it's so, it's truly such a good show. And I have people on all the time and I watch podcasts. And a lot of times people gas people up just to promote, their thing. I don't know if I take pride in this, but I'm very sincere with like, Hey, I saw this. I liked this or whatever. Like I'm selling the show. I'm telling you, it is such a fantastic show and, and gives hope to multicams again. And I just think there's so many layers to it. And I want to know how much is intentional, how much is chemistry and how much is luck. I mean, there's gotta be all of it, but. I think, um, I think it's a lot of chemistry. Uh, I don't know about no love. I think we got to get writers. I mean, if you, if you watch this show, you'll see, um, like I said, we'll, we'll put so much in there and then we'll take so much back. I mean, I'm black, so I know how to be black. And that's something nobody can ever take from me. So I know what a real black conversation feel like. You know, if I'm in a house and I call my kid or in red or a nigger or whatever, I know how much to use it because I use it every day. Set your black ass down, get your black ass over here. You know, nigga, please. Or whatever, you know? So I think, I think why it works is because if, when I'm going through the strip, if you're writing for me, I can easily say, that's not how, that's not how I would say that. Or I wouldn't say this like that. Yeah. And I do the other actors feel that they could do this because it's your show. It's going to be easier for first on the call sheet to say, I wouldn't say it like this. I don't like that. Have you had conversations with other actors where they say, Hey, this doesn't feel natural or do they maybe not even bring that up to you? Um, I've had not much. Cause I'm one thing about me. I have, everybody around me is so trained. You have the daddy who's, uh, come out of theater. You have Tammy Roman, who's been on TV forever. Each one of those kids is, you know, they've been on movies or they've been trained and they went to school for it. So not really because, and I think the good thing about this show is that the writers knows the actress voice. That's what I think. That's what you're trying to ask me. You know, how do we know how to land it so good with, with what they say? And I think it's just the writers. Very well written. And that's easier to do for the star of the show to know your voice. I mean, literally you could watch it and it's written in your voice, but it does seem like they know the voices of at least the wheelhouses of these other actors because they're all funny. Yeah. So when, when, when we, when I first got the Ms. Pat show and one of the things I told the co-creator, I said, a lot of times when comedians get show only the star is really funny. And I said, I don't want that to be my whole family is funny. You know, the way we rag on each other on that show that's how we do at the house. My son is funny. My daughter's is funny. My husband's fun. Everybody is funny. So that's why you see everybody has a punchline or you are, you will see everybody have their moment in an episode where they get the shine because that's my real family. And I think we've had the same writers for at least three or four of us from the beginning. So everybody knows that they know the voice back. Yeah. Yeah. I don't change writers because once you learn the voice of show, this is not an easy show. You know, it's, I've had people come over and just write cussing word because that's just, they think that's how I talk. No, I do curse, but it's, it's, it's, it's out of love. It's, it's out of trying to teach you something. I'm not just walking around the house. Motherfucker. I'm not doing that. I'm making a point when I'm cursing. I have a lot of comedy friends, writers, um, John and Allison who work on your show are always my go-to whenever I'm doing something. If I might help with something, I mean, they are joke machines. They're really, really good. Um, you had a, a bit, you talked about how this is how I talk and this is how you talk to your kids. There was a scene where your son asks you to leave the room. And, uh, I don't remember what episode it was. It might've been the pilot. Your son asks you to leave the room and he talks to you in a way that is, uh, I disrespectful. Yes. And I remember specifically when I learned, you just, we're different cultures and you learn about different cultures from either watching things and hope it's authentic or just your friends. Right. And, um, I grew up, uh, I grew up in a school with, it was, it was, it was Jews, black people and Asian people, just those three basically. But like, so I had a lot of black friends and I remember certain moments growing up where I learned something like, Oh, this isn't my friend. This is black culture. I mean, it's, you know, I'm, I'm maybe being stereotypical, but that's what I noticed. I remember one of them was, I remember it was the first time I saw, I loved the movie Bay-Based Kids. And I remember I learned it at my buddy Lance's house and his mom, he said something to his mom. I don't remember what it was, but it wasn't a lot. It was not, okay. I'm so sorry. Look away. You don't really have to. He said something that, he said something that wasn't disrespectful in my mind. I don't know. Maybe it was, will you look away and blow my nose? It was something just like that, whatever it was. I remember the mom didn't even say anything. He stopped himself. He went cold and he said, I'm sorry, ma'am, for whatever it was. And, uh, and then that moment I re I had a conversation with him. And then I've heard other stuff. And it's like the way I've heard people do bits, the way white kids talk to their moms versus black kids talk to their moms. So just when he said, get out of my room, I just thought to myself, Oh, I have a feeling I know where this joke is going. And you were walking out, but instead of walking out and closing the door, when you left, you used him to close the door and close it in. And it was just a funny physical performance, but it was also like, Oh, this is, he shouldn't have spoken to her this way. Obviously those moments where, and pardon me for nerding out this specific kind of question, but there's two things happening. There's my son would not talk to me this way with me being okay with it. That's right. And then there's the physical comedy of it. Yes. A lot of jokes are found in the blocking and in the rehearsal. Is that something that like, you knew you were going to close the door and talk to him that way? Did you know that you were going to use him to do it? Is that pitch to you? Um, I want to say that was, um, I want to say I was supposed to, uh, throw him up against the wall, but it's just so happened to door closed. So that was an accident, accidental find. I don't, I don't remember, but I don't, I think I just, I think it's in my comic mind. I just slammed the door with him. Cause as that was a pilot, it was the first time I ever ate. So one of the things that kept playing in my mind is, what would I do in real life? What would I do if this boy tried to handle me in real life? And that's why when you saw me grab him up in the chest and I threw him up against the door, it was so funny because I thought I had hurt him. If you look at his face. That was going to be my next question. Yeah, he was shocked. And I didn't want to stop the scene, but I was like, you know, I'm acting and I'm just being a black mama. Yeah, well, we didn't do the physical part in the rehearsal. I kind of jacked him up in the rehearsal. But then I just kept playing through my head. What would I do as a black mother if my son really talked to me like this? And so I ended up slamming his ass into the door, pouring my finger in his face and saying what I had to say. And if you look in Theodore's face, he's like, what the hell? And so when they said cut. He's great, by the way. Oh, he is. Once they said cut, I said, oh, my God, did I hurt you? And he was like, no. But that was playing in my head the whole time I was doing my lines. Like, did I do it too hard? Because I know how I would jack up my real child. Do you hit your kids? Did you when they were growing up? Hell yeah. What kind of hitting? I spanked them. So it was a it was a it was a formal like, all right, it's time for hitting. It wasn't as much of a reactive. You hit something. It was like a specific. Why the butt? I think the butt supposed to be beat, don't it? Eleanor Roosevelt. When I was growing up, I didn't get hit too much. But when I did, it wasn't like. All right, bend over a smack. It was just wherever they were. It was smacks, smacks or pushes against the head, pulling the ear, the thigh, whatever. Like, I mean, if you if I'm mad enough, I slay the thigh, pulling it here in the thigh, pulling the ear. OK, pulling the ear and then what the thigh hitting the thigh. Oh, got it. Yeah. I remember my dad once my dad. Yeah. My dad once he got mad at something I said to my mom and gave me a wedgie, but like pick me up by my underpants and it was like off the ground. And I remember my mom got mad at my dad. He said, because you could really hurt him. And he hurt that. It was. It was one of the words that was like. And I know that was reactive, like that was picking somebody up like that. Did he put splinters in your booty hole? Splinters? I mean, you know, maybe maybe thread. I can imagine you smaller Jewish boy pulling the pants up between your ass. Did he cut your crack? Yeah. I got my balls a little bit, but it was it was the it was the sack without a ball got out of the way. Oh, yeah. But so you. Under one nut. Well, coincidentally, I have a varicose seal on my left testicle. Do you know what that is? No, I do not, sir. I could talk about it. If you want to tell me what a varicose seal is, I'm learning stuff from you today. Varicose veins. You've heard of those. It's like you just got one thick vein on your nut. It's a lot of veins. There's extra veins in my on my left side of my testicle. Here, let me show you. No, please don't show me. I was just going to show you. I was. I don't want to see your ball, sir. Oh, OK. I know the varicose vein and I see your nut in my mind. So it's a little white nut with a whole bunch of thick veins. I'm quite sure the veins are bigger than the nut. So the way you said little, I just want you to know is disrespectful. We say smaller. Oh, I'm sorry. Smaller. Because it's smaller than the right. But it's not. It's still a nice nut. Well, to be honest with you, it is actually a bit small. And it's it's it's sometimes an insecurity of mine when I'm making love to somebody new. I don't do this anymore. But I used to feel the need to say, I want to let you know that my left testicle is. So let me explain. There's extra veins and it surrounds it. So it makes it warmer. So it could cause fertility issues. I had it removed in 11th grade. It came back. The varicocele, not the testicle. Oh my God. So, and there's extra, there's veins. And it was, when I was younger, it was surrounding the testicle. So it didn't let it grow. So my left testicle is smaller than my right. And when I would, a woman, a consenting, strong woman would blow me and suck on my balls, I would get a little insecure that she would feel how small the left one is in her mouth. So for a while, I would not let girls suck my balls. And then I just realized. Who's sucking balls? Is this a cultural thing? I don't fucking know. Wait a minute. I think it's a generational thing. Because I don't think they were sucking balls when I was coming up. Well, I can say that it is. It's a multicultural ball sucking. Okay. You been with a black woman? I have. Did she suck your small ball? That was during a time when I was insecure about getting my balls sucked. But she was on her way and I had to stop her. Or not stop her, I had to let her know. That's where I would say, I just want to let you know that my left ball is smaller than my right ball. And they'd be like, you're so hot, Rick. Who would have noticed it? That's the thing. They say, they say. Oh, I didn't even notice. I don't know if they're being nice. Because when they're cold, they're small anyway. But why are they cold? I don't know. I'm asking you. Do your nuts get cold? Do they wobble to and fro? That doesn't rhyme, but it makes sense. Yeah, my nuts get cold. I'm a guy. Sometimes I think you'd be talking to yourself. That's why I'm saying you don't need a live studio audience. I've gotten my balls sucked while I was warm. Okay. I can't. So, like, this is fun for me because this is also, I think, this is important to get out there for people to know. You should get yourself. If you notice that your left testicle is smaller or you feel some veins, it's a varicocele. You can ask your doctor. Your skin is white. It's easy to feel veins. And it's thin. So. My skin is thin? Honey, not in this business. In this business, you have a thick skin. Well, not your balls. Your balls don't do no right. My balls. My ball skin is thick as fuck. Let me show you something. No, please don't show me this, sir. Okay, all right, all right. Please. I do not want to see no penis I can see through. I don't want to see that. So, you're saying that black people's balls, it's harder to see their veins than white people's balls? It's harder for you to see my veins now through my skin, but I can see your veins all through your skin. But the veins in a ball sack are below the epidermis. I learned that word from your show. I don't know what you're talking about. About epidermis or ball veins? Epidermis in the ball sack. In the episode where your sister was having the hair stuff, and she puts it in your daughter's hair, and it feels like tiny knives are stabbing in, and she's doing all her scientific talk about epidermis. Oh, that's a smart child. I don't know nothing about her lines. Okay. Well, then let me just close this by saying the veins in your ball sack are around the balls. You can't really see them, but you can feel them. Okay. Okay. So, you check your balls. Ball sack for lumps. Well, my doctor in high school checked my ball sack. He noticed it. I didn't know because at the time, I wasn't feeling that many balls. So, that's just what the balls feel like. Did they remove your ball? They removed the varicocele. They went in. They cut the veins. But then it came back. So, how is it working for you now? Can I show you something? No. You keep saying no. Do you think I'm really. Are you just playing with me, or do you think I'm going to take my pants off? I don't know what you're going to do. So, I'm just going to say no because I don't want to see nothing. Okay. They got rid of my veins. The veins came back. Okay. I'll plug season five. I got to blow my nose again. I wish I could show you season five. Are you done filming it? I am. You back. I don't want to turn this whole thing into ball jokes because that wasn't my intention. I was really wanting to talk to you about my balls about something for real. Okay. And then it became ball. I'm going to put you in a ball. But at the end of the day, I do think it's important that we have a lot of people on the left and on the right, they're only surrounded by their own chambers, and they're only hearing about stuff that like this and this, and it's important that people come together. And I mean that as a pun. However, when you have apparently black people that don't know about white people's balls, I do think it's important that this conversation happens. I don't think black people care about white people's balls. And that's the problem. Do you care about black people's balls? Who are you talking to? Do I care about it? Honey, I wrote my thesis on it. So this is your first acting job. Yes. It's now the number one show on the network. Yes. You're going into season five, and that means all of your acting experience is multicam. Yes. I've done a few things since then, but yes, all of my acting is mostly multicam. You guys laugh sometimes in the show. A lot. And I can't tell, I don't know what's real and what's character, but my intuition tells me that when there's those laughters and those smiles, they're real. And I think that's a great thing to leave in. Well, you know what? Again, that was the co-creator, Jordan E. Cooper, idea. Because he grew up on multicam, and he just loved it. And at first, I was like, you're going to leave people laughing? Laugh they're in? And it's so funny, because if you ever come see a live episode, you can hear everybody laughing. I can tell when my kids are laughing, when Jordan or Patrick or anybody's laughing, I know they laugh there. So when you see us really laughing in those things and he leave them in, you know, especially when we break character. And we be trying not to now. I haven't seen it to a point, and I haven't seen all the episodes, but I haven't seen it to where it felt like it was even breaking character once. Can you give an example of when you feel it's breaking character? Oh, you'll see me laughing all the time. I be breaking character, but they just keep it in. - Yeah, it doesn't read to me. i believe that it's you laughing but it also to me works for the character so i don't think of it as technically breaking character i think of it as people being real and having multiple emotions exactly but you know they call it breaking character when you get tammy roman who never even she will hold her laughter until they say cut which tammy that's my sister she's great yes she is that's my sister so um and then you get you get where you get the son theodore and you always see a little smirk on his face because he he just loved comedy and sometimes he just can't hold it and you know like here in season five which is hilarious and in the first episode you can see him laughing so many times which you like to you because you wasn't there doing the filming it looks naturally but to me i know he don't supposed to be laughing there yeah um in real life people tell a joke sometimes they laugh sometimes they don't but you could be in a fight with somebody and get a little bit of a smirk out of them and they're like fuck i don't want to laugh you know whatever but those emotions are layered and i think that's real life and when i watch shows that somebody tells a joke and then the other that's a funny joke and the other person even if they don't laugh they don't acknowledge that joke it's just joke it's not it's it's just like it's that's television in a bad way in an unbelievable way to me i think that showing laughter just adds more layers to it and it's just i've thought about this before but shows don't really seinfeld showed it sometimes but shows don't show laughter and i i wonder if it's because the editors or direct showrunner think that it takes away from the performance yes i think that's a that's i think that's another layer of what makes your show not that that's what all shows do but what makes your show feel like i believe it is that well and i agree with you and and and that was a conversation me and the uh show me and the co-creator which is a show running now hey and i was like you sure you want to leave this in and he's like it feels natural natural so when you look at it you feel like now if you bust not laughing well why the hell the actor ain't bust not laughing like if you watch the episode with me and tammy go inside the uh beauty salon and because this girl wants to rip her off with her with her boyfriend and i had to be on the cover i couldn't stop laughing because i really didn't know how to go on the cover and you can see it all over my face and you can see tammy like what the hell are you doing pat but you know she rolled with it and you can if you look around in that scene you can see other people with a little smirk on their face too because it's funny and i think when people say when people see the actors laughing or whatever you want to call it breaking character it makes them you know really come into that scene with you hey they're real i feel like happened to me at a beauty salon yeah so so uh the difference to me between laughing and breaking character and they're not mutually exclusive is um and this is this isn't necessarily the right thing but just my mind for when it works and doesn't breaking character is almost always funny if you believe them like when you watch somebody on live television and they break it's funny because you're seeing the humanity of it right it could take you out of the scene a little like sometimes on stage i'll i i'm trying to do a bit it makes myself laugh and now i'm like well now they know i'm joking and i just feel like i can't keep going with it anymore so sometimes i if a if somebody laughs and like they try and hide the laugh and try not to laugh it's like oh i'm seeing a performer doing something that they're not wanting to do um okay here's an example if if if when you're laughing going in the beauty salon and then you turn away or you cover your mouth or you go like that i'm watching a performer trying does that make sense yes but when somebody laughs and they're present and they're allowing themselves to laugh and they're laughing in character to me it doesn't take away this is nerd this doesn't maybe doesn't matter to you i just think about this stuff and i like talking about it um but i do think there's something to not hiding the emotion like in acting coaches will tell you excuse me when you have a scene and it's written that you're supposed to cry like some performers are trying to cry and you could see them trying to cry or their eyes water a little so they're blinking to try and get it to go down their face and that's them trying to force an emotion i feel that way with laughter i saw an interview with sandler once he said the hardest thing to do as an actor is to fake laugh oh and i i very much connect to that right yes i don't think i ever fake laugh well good i don't know how uh but if a scene calls for it yeah yeah you know it's tough to do you know when i when we when i first got the miss pat show it was that show actually belongs to fox so fox is where i originally sold a miss pat show along with lee daniel and ron howard company imagine so who imagine produces it yeah it's a i don't know that's cool i saw brian grazer's part of it yeah so uh it's imagined so um we go over to the fox lot and hulu purchased uh the miss pat show as we're about to shoot the miss pat show on the fox to go and watch some other shows. Some multicams, some single cams, some shows, a bunch of pilots were being shot at that time. And what was crazy to me is they had people that's called higher laughters. In the audience. In the audience. And I didn't know that. So they had this group of people that come in and they had the script and they told them what a joke was. So I said, well, maybe this is for today because this is rehearsal. So you come back on the main. You come back on the main day when it's a live studio audience and those fake laughters are still there. And I was like, holy shit. They hire people to laugh? So I remember looking at Joy and saying, we're not going to do this. If it's not real, we're going to keep writing until somebody laughs. And that blew me away. That blew me away. I did not know that they hire fake laughters. I mean, you've seen things where like there's an applause sign, right? Mm-hmm. A lot of comedy specials are done that way. Paid audiences. Yeah, if people can't fill the full audience, I mean, it's not. What's the purpose of shooting a special then? Well, let's say you're filming, you're doing two tapings and it seats 500 people and you sell 400 seats per show. That's enough to tape in. What's that? I'm not saying right or wrong. I'm just saying logistically, this is how stuff's done. Audience fillers. Yeah, I know those. I see them all the time at the award shows. Yeah. And then sometimes it's like, you know, they're instructed. Like warm. You guys have a warm-up? Not a warm-up. We do. We have a warm-up person. Yeah. Is that what they're called? Mm-hmm. Where like even during scene changes and everything, they keep the audience. Yeah. So like they'll still even tell people, so this thing is about to come up. Make sure you laugh at it. No, we don't say that. We don't say that. We never ask you to laugh. We hope you got. We know you're going to laugh. And if you don't laugh, guess what? The writers are on the floor. We're going to rewrite it until you laugh. And that's the difference. Sometimes an audience will do things like this. Yes. You think there's ever any shows where the warm-up people tell them to do that? Or is it just laugh? Well, we allow real emotions. So we had an episode. I'm sorry. No, no, it's okay. I am. This is not an attractive thing, either physically or just to be talking to somebody. It's human. You got shit in your nose. But. Eleanor Roosevelt. We had an episode where Junebug was. Damn it, I forgot what I was about to say again. Letting people have real emotions. Okay. What was the episode Junebug was in? Nothing to drink? No, I don't want anything to drink, but you got a nice refrigerator. Isn't that fun? Yes. Damn it, I was about to tell you about an episode when Junebug was in. I don't forgot. Well, then. I guess we'll just have to talk about the difference between white balls and black balls. No, I don't want to talk about no more balls. But we can keep talking about the sitcom. Do you. Are you on a podcast run at the moment where you're doing a lot of stuff to promote the show? I'm doing a lot of podcasts, yes. And I just did Jimmy Kimmel last night. And I did Jennifer Hudson. Ooh, fun. It was fun. Do you know her? I know her from being on the show. I've never hung out with her. What is it? What's her fan army name? Jennifer Hudson Heads? I don't know what a fan is. I'm a Jennifer Hudson Head. Oh, are you? Yeah. Well, I call my fans the Crack Babies. The Crack Babies? Yes. You weren't a Crack Baby. You just had. You raised Crack Babies or you were a Crack Baby? No. My Crack was not around in 72. Okay. I know. I know. Crack came around in around 86. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. I'm hip. Yeah, I see. So, also, and pardon me, you probably talked about this stuff on other pods because I don't know your life story outside of your stand-up and the show. You got pregnant when you were 13. Yes. Gave birth at 14. And gave birth at 14. And, uh. Got pregnant again at 14. Gave birth at 15. Same man. Mm-hmm. Who then. Then shot you. Yes. He was a mayor man. Right. Yet your joke where you say that because you met him when you were 12, you were the only kid in elementary who had a boyfriend with a car and his wife came to talk to you to have an abortion and there was an ice cream truck and asked if you wanted any ice cream. You're 13. So funny. Wild. Two questions. One is you said you in real life, you had abortions. Yes. What is the frame of mind to where a person who's willing to have a child at 13, excuse me, 14 and 15? Yes. You would think one would. I mean, this is obviously not. It's a bit of a blanketed statement. But if you were going to have the abortion, you would have had it then. Then time goes on. You're like, OK, I don't want to have. I couldn't afford it. Time was hard. Wait, you couldn't afford the abortion? Once you once you have a baby. Yeah, everybody got a motherly instinct in them. You know, women do. And I think once you give birth, the instinct wakes up. So I have two kids by this married man who, you know, at first I was like, oh, my God, I just love him. I thought he was a world. He's the first person to say he loved me and all the shit he took me through. So by the time I have their first baby, I'm just know he's going to be up for me. He's going to take. I mean, in my head, I'm a little girl and I got these dreams, you know, with dreams. He's going, you know, he's going to be the daddy that Mike that I never had to my kids. And so, you know, I'm just living in La La Land. Then I get pregnant again. And then I'm growing up. Now, mind you, I don't have a baby. So I. And who's helping you raise the baby? A little bit of my mom. But really, I'm on my own. I'm making fake idea. I'm getting jobs. I'm dropped out of school. A great. Is that when you started selling drugs or you selling before then? No, that's when I started selling drugs after my second child. So I'm out here trying to survive. So I'm picking up all this street knowledge. And I'm realizing that I got two. I got two kids that I cannot take care of. I'm already I get a welfare check and I'm selling drugs. I got an eighth grade education. And I'm thinking, like, how am I going to keep these kids when I get my list? How am I going to keep these kids from going through what I went through? So when I got pregnant by him again, because here I'm young, I'm dumb, I'm in love. I just want to be loved. But the man don't love me. And then when I got pregnant, I was like, I can't keep no baby. What was the third pregnancy with him again? All of them was with him. Yeah. Well, you have two kids with you. You have two kids with your husband, don't you? Yeah. Yeah. I have two kids. I kept those. You said you had two abortions? By him. He got you pregnant four times. What was the moment that I'm not going to let him get me pregnant anymore? Was it before or after the shooting? It was after the shooting. That'll do it. It wasn't really it wasn't really about him shooting me because I thought that was love. I thought he loved me because, you know, he had many girlfriends. And so if he shoot me. I feel like I was special. So logically, I could I could appreciate how that doesn't make sense. But emotionally, but what you connect, what love is. Could you explain? Love to me was abuse. Let me back up. So I don't know if you ever heard me say this. My mama said, if a man don't hit you, he don't love you. So I thought every punch was love. I thought every mistreatment was love. Did your mom hit you? Yeah. And my mom also got hit. So she passed me down. The trauma that was passed down to her. So when you tell a little girl, if a man don't punch you in the eye, he don't love you. So I thought, you know, if I could make him jealous or he beat on me, it was I supposed to accept it. Did you feel loved by your mom growing up? No, at all. But if you if your mom hit you, which meant she loves you, but you didn't feel loved by her. Why does that translate differently to somebody else? It didn't translate till I got older. I didn't know. It was way. I'm sorry. Just because I want to understand when you were 13. My mom wasn't whooping me at 13 anymore. But when you were. Oh, OK. So this time. So when you were 13, you thought being hit was love. When you were younger, you didn't being younger and being hit conditioned you to feel that way. No, my mom had conditioned me early on. Probably, you know, from from child from birth, probably until I met him. You know, she always whooped us really rough. She's always talked down to us. She always mistreated us. I do think she did love us, but she showed us the love that was shown to her. You know, hurt people hurt people until somebody break that cycle. So she passed it on down. So when I got in this relationship and my mom would never use the word I love y'all. He was the first person that said, I love you. So I fell over here because I was like, finally, I got somebody to love me. And back to why I didn't abort my first child and why I aborted my third child, because I thought in my head, if I gave birth to this baby, finally, I will have somebody in my life that really loves me. Because that this child, I'm raising this child. Nobody else can poison this child against me. So this child going to come out straight, just loving me. And it's a love that I need it. I want it. You know, I had never had. So when I had my daughter, I knew I finally had somebody that loved me. And when I had my son, about not even 50. Fifteen months later, you know, here I am, 15 years old, I'm underage, I can't get an abortion. And so I become emancipated minor through the Georgia, my caseworker. She helped me became emancipated minor. So I got my own welfare check and my own Medicaid. And at the time, people don't even notice you could get an abortion on Medicaid. Well, when I got pregnant again by him, I took my Medicaid slip then and got an abortion each time. You have a joke in your show where you said because the difference between your first two kids and your second two kids, Medicaid and Blue Cross, your Medicaid kids, you have to raise them different than the Blue Cross kids. Yes. That's where that comes from. That's exactly what it's come from. It's such a good show. Thank you. It really is. And hearing you talk about I believe that this is all coming from real stuff. But hearing you talk about it and how directly related it is, not just inspired by, which is not a problem anyway. I'm sure a lot of stuff is like you said, you take stories from other people. But like, man, that's wild. And there's another joke. There's another joke too, where you apologize to your cousin for getting you into it, but you got out. For getting her into it. Yeah, for the drugs. And she said, you're the 1%, but the other 98%. We didn't. And then that joke, it wasn't for another 20 seconds before it's revealed that, you know, it's 99%, not 98%. But I like the way that joke is. One, the joke itself. But two, it's a character joke. It's not just a punchline. It's, at least to me, commentary on this person who is not well off. Not that being stupid and being uneducated are the same thing by any means. But here's somebody who did not get out and doesn't know that simple math. And I don't know if that was intentional or not. But then. It was a joke. But the way it translated to me was, yes, it's a joke. But she, your sister, didn't call it out until she left the room. Instead of saying it to her, which I thought was a cool choice. Because one, it lets the viewer. Like, are they going to acknowledge this? It builds that tension. But also, it was something where you two were out and she isn't. And I just thought that. And maybe that was just an accidental thing. But the commentary on that. And like, to then, at the end of that episode, you seeing you girls as kids. Which, by the way, those actors are what? 12, 13 years old? And I mean, I would love to see how that was directed. Just because of the language and the intensity. When they first started it. And that scene was so emotional for me. Because it made me. You know, it took me back there. And I remember the first time they rehearsed it. And I went over to Jordan and I said, I don't feel it. And so I go up to their parents and I say, do you mind if they say a few cursing words? And they was like, no, I don't mind. Why? Because that's what was real? That's what was real. That's what I would have said if I was standing there. Those are the conversations I had with my cousin. That's the example of a man about the cussing feels so intentional. Yes. So as I go up to the little girls and I say it, I tell them, you know, I tell them how to deliver the lines. Because this is me and my cousin Boo at the time in my life. And, you know, how I got out and how, you know, she felt like I left her behind and I owed her something. And I remember standing over. Standing there, even in that scene, watching it. Fucking boo-hooing. Because, you know, I never look at my life as getting out. But when I shot that scene, I felt it. And that was probably the first moment in my life when I realized I did get out. Was while filming it? Yes, while filming it. It made me realize I did get out. I did break the cycle. I did change my life. You know, I come from a family, a household, high school. I dropped out of eighth grade myself. And, you know, convicted felon child, you know, being molested, alcoholism, abuse. And I'm standing there and I'm watching these two girls tape that scene. And I realized I did get out. And my kids have never endured the things that I went through. And I remember walking out that scene, going home that night. And I shed a few tears. Because I. I don't sit back and look at my life like, Like, oh, I made it. This is work to me. This is work. And I'm going to be honest. I didn't know I was abused until I became a comedian. Until everybody was like, what the hell? That story real? You telling the truth? I'm like, yeah. You know, I'm thinking I'm an inner city kid pregnant by a married man, which was, I thought it happened in everybody. And it does. At first, I thought it only happened to the black community. And then once I became a comedian, I realized this shit happened in every race of people. What's different with me is I say it out loud. And a lot of people shun for me or they hide from it. And they don't want to talk about it. You know, I know so many people who had kids really young. But, you know, their kids don't even know that they had them that young. But I just learned not to be ashamed of anything. And so when I became a comedian, I realized that I had a messed up life. And I said, well, I either embrace my life or I turn my back and act like this stuff never happened. So one day I sit down and I watch Eminem in, what was it? Eight Miles. Eight Miles. And he was in that rap battle. I am white. I am a fucking bum. I do live in a trailer with my mom. My best friend is a no good two time. Sorry. So as he's rapping, as the old boy rapping against him, and they go to that rap battle. And Eminem goes up first and he says, everything. Everything about himself. And old boy had nothing to say. And I said, that's the technique I'm going to take to comedy. I'm going to tell you everything about me. So you'll never have to ever say anything about me because I've already put it out there. And your name is Clarence. You went to a private school. So that's a technique. That was a healing moment for me watching that, you know, that Eminem do Eight Miles. And it made me not be ashamed of what I've been through in life. And, you know, and it kind of gave me the courage to say, say it out loud, you know, stop. Because I wasn't doing it at first. When I first started doing comedy, I wasn't telling about I had two kids about the age of 15. I've been molested. I've been shot. I've been abused. But I said, well, if I don't say it out loud, I'm just going to forever carry this inside of me. And once I started talking about it, it became a healing moment. Were you doing comedy before? Were you talking about it and not talking about that stuff? Yeah, I was doing comedy. I was just talking about bullish BS. Yeah. So after I became a comedian, I started to talk about it. And then I wrote that joke about the Blue Cross Blue Shield. And that's what I did it on Marc Maron podcast and Joe Rogan. And then I went and did all this stuff with developing the show. And so when I met the third writer, which was Jordan Cooper, and he wanted to dig deep. I mean, he wanted to dig deep. And like some stuff we was going to do in season one. I said, you can't do it. I didn't do it in season three. My boyfriend molested me. I said, I'm not ready to do that. And we had a whole episode on it in season one. And I took it out. So it was a it was healing. The more I stream to the top of my voice that I've been molested, I've been mistreated. But it's OK. And that's what I tell people. You can't change the past, but you can control the future. As long as your health is there. When you say. You said in that moment that to the daughter or to you that like we made it out. Yes. When you I was I mean, that wasn't just watery eyes. I mean, it's down the face even now thinking about it. And hearing you say that you as an artist, hearing you say that you didn't connect with it at first. And you wanted to, obviously. And then you made some altercations. Altercations. Am I saying the right word? Some adjustments. Adjustments. Yes. So I could feel it. Yeah. And then you feel and because it felt that way. It felt that way. Watching you, the performer, do that like it was that line. One of my best friends, also an ex-girlfriend of mine, Jackie Tone. She's been on this podcast a lot. I remember she told me years ago that when she hears people say, I did it, it makes her emotional. Like, I did it. Like the acceptance and awareness of accomplishing something that you felt maybe you couldn't. Like, look what I did. That made me think of that. Like, here's a person that in the script is telling the younger self, we're going to be okay. But it felt like it was for you. Like, oh my God. So hearing you say that that was something that you felt is another reason why I think the show. Yeah. Now, I remember when I asked the co-creator, I was like, can I do it? Can I make these adjustments? And he was like, yeah. And I stood there and I coached the two girls. And then I said, okay, now we feel it. Now I feel it. Now we can tape it. Because what I needed to do in that scene is go back. You, the real you or the character? Are you talking about the drug? Are you talking about the two girls who were selling drugs? Yeah, but you said I needed to go back. Who are you talking about? You were the character. I needed to. So if you notice in that scene, I was standing there watching the two younger girls be us. So I needed them to, I needed to feel them. Yeah. So I can go back. I can go back to where they was at. So that day, standing on that corner on Ashby Grove is where I went to in my mind. That is what I felt. Because me and my cousin sold drugs on that corner. So what y'all saw in that studio is not what I was seeing. I was seeing me and my cousin at 16. And I think my cousin a couple years younger than me at 13 and 16 or something like that selling drugs. And I'm standing on the side with a TV show, with a pretty successful life saying. With a what? With a pretty successful life looking back at their situation. I'm sorry, I'm not understanding what that means. What's that for life? A pretty successful life on country. Looking back at, you know, the two little girls standing on the corner and saying, we made it. I made it. We out. And, you know, not one time ever that I thought that. I didn't know what I was thinking when I was selling drugs. All I was trying to do was survive. And to look at me where I'm at today. I always, I always say I was chosen to do the things that I did for some reason. Because now all I hear from people, Miss Pat, you don't know how much you heal me. I had a white dude tell me last weekend. He said, when you told that story about you putting a dope in your daughter's diaper. He was like, I knew you was real. Because that's what I said. That's what I used to do. And so these are stories that I had that a lot of people probably wouldn't have never said out loud. But it was also healing for me too. You know, from being molested, from having kids, and being abused, and being shot. Tell me why you got shot. Like, what was going through his mind when he shot you? What happened? What's that story? Well, I was shot twice. Same man? Mm-mm. It's different. The first time I was shot. Oh, it's like. You know? Larry King never asked. So when were you shot? Give me one second. You know, it blows his nose. The first time I was shot, I was shot by another drug dealer. And it hit me in the breast. And the second time I was shot, I was shot by him. He hit me with a gun and it went off and it tore some of the back of my head out. So he was meaning to pistol whip you? Yes. Yes, I was dating another guy. It was a fight. It was an accident. I guess. I'm joking. Why was he hitting you? Because he always hit. And that's him showing love to you. Did you know, did you have an idea as a 14, 15-year-old that he's hitting me, it means he loves me. I understand you believe that. Was there also something where you thought, I don't like what love is? I had friends around me saying, older friends, like, girl, you crazy as hell. And as abuse kept going, I watched the movie, What Love Gotta Do With It. I don't remember. I know I've seen it. Tina Turner. Yeah, I don't remember the movie. That was her story. And I was beating on her. And I was like. But you were saying when you saw the Ike stuff, you were like, that's not good. Or you thought, oh, he loves her. No, I was like, that's what I'm going through. Why am I stepping this shit? Why am I stepping you? That's what made you realize it? I mean, it was kind of like an eye opener. Yeah. Because when you're in love with somebody or you think you're in love with somebody, and you grew up in the way I grew up, and it was the first person in my life that I really thought loved. I mean, I didn't want to lose that. So I accepted a lot of the bull crap behind it that I thought I was supposed to accept. I know I don't have to accept that. Now, I've been married for 32 years. He ain't never disrespected me and beat on me and treat me the way that last one did. But I look at life like this. You got to go through something to get to something. And what I did was went through something. And now I got something. What's Love Got To Do With It and 8 Mile? What made you who you are today? Pretty much. Your show, you believe, offers that to other people. And is that what you mean by chosen? Yes. Because, you know, like, everybody can't stand up and say what they've been through in life when they've been through so much trauma and pain. And, you know, people handle it different ways. My sister's more crack. And I believe the reason why my sister's on crack is to hide the things that we've been through in life. The molestation, the beating. Not being loved and abused. She dealt with her pain a different way. I dealt with mine. Probably overeating, and then comedy came along. How old were you when that happened? What? Overeating? No, the comedy. Probably all my life. I've been doing comedy now for over about 23 years. I'm 53. Oh, so you started at 30? I started about 28. Yeah, about 30. Were you not talking, you weren't talking about this at all before comedy? Were you in therapy? No, I'd never been in therapy. I'd never been in therapy. I talked a little bit about it. I had gotten married, so I talked a little bit about it. How old were you when you got married? 29. So you started comedy and got married around the same time? Yeah, around the same time. Well, four or five years later, I had a baby. The conversation of asking a comedian how they got into comedy is, to me, not always the most interesting conversation because, I don't know, I'm just not that interested in it. A lot of the time. With you, I think it's so interesting, and I would love to ask you why you started doing comedy. I started doing comedy because I was getting my life back together, and I voted for Bill Clinton. He started the Welfare to Work program. So I go, I have to report to a caseworker because they want to change your mindset and get you out the system. I run into a black caseworker named Miss Chambers, and I started telling her all of these horrible things that happened to me. And I'll never forget one of the stories that she, you could not stop laughing at. I grew up in a bootleg house with my grandfather, and we stole, my brother stole my auntie food stamps. What's a bootleg house? Where they sell moonshine. Oh, literally bootleg. Yeah, like a bootleg house. And so my granddaddy sold single cigarettes and alcohol, like shots and beers and stuff like that. And my brother stole my auntie's food stamps. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. Alcohol wasn't illegal. It was. You cannot say alcohol without a license. My granddaddy was like a convenience store. Okay. His house, our house. So he just didn't have a liquor license. Well, he was selling moonshine. Right. So he was selling little shots for 50 cents on the dollar. I guess I just think of moonshine as when alcohol is banned. No. But I guess, yeah. Well, you don't supposed to sell, well, this is in the 70s. Yeah. The early 80s. You weren't supposed to be selling that. But why is anybody buying moonshine from him instead of just going to a liquor store? Because my grandfather sold corn liquor, and they didn't sell it in the stores. So people just wanted it to be corn? I guess. I don't know. But that's what he sold. He sold that and beer. And also in Georgia, they did not sell alcohol on Sundays. So that's when my granddaddy was the busiest. Late night Saturdays and Fridays and Saturdays and Sundays. You could do that with Chick-fil-A now. Chick-fil-A don't open on Sundays. That's what I'm saying. Exactly. So we steal my aunt's food stamps. And I'm telling this story to my caseworker. And I was like, oh, I had such a rough life. And she was like, well, tell me your story. I tell her about we stole the food stamps, and we done a band like Laffy Taffy's and catching the food stamps for candy, you know, for change so we could play Pac-Man. So we done it all day. We get back. My aunt woke, and my granddaddy's up. And we walk in the house, and my granddaddy said, line up, niggas. We was like, what? He's like, who stole the food stamp? And so my granddaddy had a shotgun house. He threw the rope over to one of the beams, and it dropped down. He put a chain. He grabbed my cousin. He said, I'm going to hang all y'all asses until y'all tell me who stole the food stamp. So this is our granddaddy. He playing, right? He put the rope around my cousin's neck and moved the chair, and he spit the rope. I said, granddaddy, let me tell you about these food stamps. Wait, wait, wait. The cousin's standing on the chair? Yes. With a noose around his neck? Oh, my God. That's crazy. At the time, it looked like a forever hanging, but it probably was only like, a few seconds. My cousin was kicking and screaming. Was his hands free, though, to at least go like this? I don't remember. He was a kid. We was all kids. That's fucking nuts. So he put the chair back up under my cousin's leg. He said, who stole the food stamp? And I went to snitch him. And my auntie got her food stamp, and we all got our ass beat. And that's the story I tells her. And the caseworker was laughing at this? Oh, she was in tears. And she looked at me. You must have told it with some good beats or something. Because that's funny. That's fucking nuts. Well, he's laughing now, so I guess I'm telling it with good beats. And I'm laughing. And so I would just start telling her all of this stuff, how I grew up. And she was like, you ever thought about being a comedian? And I was like, no. She was like, you got a lot of stories like Richard Pryor. And I'm like, who the hell is Richard Pryor? Really? Wow. And so I go home, and I research Richard Pryor. So you watched Superman 3? It wasn't Superman 3. It was that other movie. No, when it was moving. Remember the movie Moving? I don't know Moving. Do you know the movie Moving? Remember when he was selling his house? And the white man was selling Richard Pryor and his black wife the house. And as he was walking through the house, he was like, I'm going to take that. I'm going to take that. I thought Richard Pryor was just a funny man on TV. Even in Superman, I didn't know he was a comedian. Because I didn't know much about comedians. And so once I found out he was a comedian, then I just started researching. I said, a comedian made this kind of money? To tell their business? I can tell my business. And so she just kept telling me I should be a comedian. And so I went and got on stage. Richard Pryor, Marshall Mathers, Tina Turner. And my theme song was my husband gave me when I was at my lowest. After I stopped selling drugs and, you know, forging checks and doing all this dumb shit in my life. I'm trying to get my life back on track. And I'm feeling sorry for myself. Because you immediately want to say. Well, society set me up for failure. I never had a chance. And my husband was like, well, look. Ain't nobody going to give you a chance if you don't give yourself a chance. Stop, you know, do something with yourself. And he gave me the little tape. Not the CD, the little tape. There was no CDs back then. It was Outkast, Get Up and Get Out and Get Something. One of his favorites. Really? That was my theme song. And I will pump that shit and pump that song to get myself up. Out of this slump. Because I don't use the word depression. But I was low. You know, I had stopped selling drugs. I'm trying to go right. I have custody of my sister's kids. I can't get my hair fixed. You know, I don't feel pretty. I'm in a marriage. I got somebody to love me. But all the stuff I'm used to being able to be independent on my own. I can't. Because I don't have the education. I don't have the job. And, you know, I have custody of my sister's four kids. And we move into this house. And I'm just at my lowest. You have custody of your sister's four kids plus two or four of yours. Two at a time. I'm 19 years old. With six kids. Mm-hmm. Wow. Do you think the way that you. And I told you I got married when I was 28. Take that out. I'm sorry. I got married at like 22. I'm sorry. Do I have to take that out? Or are you just. I misspoke. Well, then you know what? Miss Pat, who misspoke, I misspoke as well. When I said Tina Turner, I meant Whitney Houston. Why did you mean Whitney Houston? Isn't it what's love got to do with it? Whitney Houston? No, you meant Tina Turner. You meant Tina Turner. That's Tina Turner. What's love got to do? So why did I say Whitney Houston? You said Whitney Houston. I said Tina Turner first. Yes, you was right. And then I thought I misspoke. No, you didn't misspoke. I did. Well, it looks like I did just now. Yeah. Do you think the way that you thought Richard Pryor. You didn't know he was a stand-up comedian. You just thought he was. An actor. Is the way that some people feel about Andre 3000 from Four Brothers? Do you know that movie? I think they know he's a rapper. Oh, okay. If you don't know he's a rapper, there's something wrong with you. One of the greatest groups out of Atlanta of all time, OutKast. Yeah, I'm. They just got. Didn't they just get. Yes, inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That's what I'm talking about. One of the greatest groups ever. Yeah, and he looks good still. Well, you know, black don't crack. You know what? That's a saying, but some black cracks. When they don't crack. Okay. Yeah, but I mean, the hairline on him even. Yeah, he just looks good. You know, we have the stuff that a lot wish they had. The melanoma. What is it on our skin? Melanin? Melanin. I don't know why I want to keep calling it cancer all the time. I was about to say, yeah. Well, you misspoke. I was being funny. I was doing you that time. I like how you said the only time you're doing me is when you say something bad and wrong. Um, you, you got into comedy, um, and, uh, at 29, you're married at 22. When do you stop selling drugs? Uh, right after I meet him. Was that because of him? Yes. Because you didn't, because he was able to help support financially. No, he was pressing the shit out of me to stop selling drugs and forging chicks. But, but because he hadn't, he, he, but you were able to do that because of his help. Well, after I got custody of my sister's kids, I got something called section eight, a, a voucher. Yes. You see, that's all in the news now to help pay for the rent. And, um, I didn't have a job, but he was encouraging me to go get a job. And I felt like he was such a good man and he cared about me and my kids. And I said, well, why don't I give up the streets? There's nothing out there. And he would constantly say, think about this. If you go to jail, these are not my kids. They're going to come get them. Yeah. And I knew that my nieces needed me and I knew that my kids needed me. I knew my kid's father was, was not going to be able. to provide for my kids the way I was the way me and me and my husband at the time could and i did not want my sister kids to go into the system because they had just came out of crack infested house so i was like i have to stop this but what kind of job could you know a single mother or father who's out there now with one kid let alone six what kind of job could they get i got mcdonald's right i got walmart i got absolutely nothing. And it was, but it wasn't about, you know, I was getting rent assistance and stuff like that. It was more about getting my life back on track. So sometimes you got to go to the bottom to stand back up and I was willing to do that. It was hard. It was because I'm used to making beaucoup of money. Thousands of dollars a day. And I'm forging checks and I'm doing all kinds of stuff. And then you go from that to not having anything to look at a man and say, can you get my hair fixed? What was it in you that allowed both your ego to allow you being so self-sustainable to needing help by doing a job that wasn't as dangerous for you and the potential safety of your family? Like to go from making thousands of dollars a day to making a hundred? Like what allowed you to do that? I had to humble myself. But what I'm saying, how? I did it for my kids. There was nothing in the street for me. I was going to go to jail. But weren't you also selling the drugs for your kids? To my kids? No, no, no. I'm saying the reason that you said you even got into it was to help support. Well, when I met my husband, I finally had some stability. He had a job. He wasn't in the streets. You know, he graduated, went off to the military six years. He had just gotten out. And it was the first time I ever met a man that was still in the streets. Dave, I tell this joke now. First man I ever met with a real credit card. I didn't even know Visa was a fucking credit card. I was like, why your card is called Visa? Because, you know, everybody I knew had a baby fat. That was a preloaded card. And he was like, it's a credit card. I'm like, well, don't you have to load it? He was like, load it? Because his parents had taught him about credit and interest rates and stuff like that. I had never heard that until I met him. So, as I was dating him, I just saw it was so much he had given me so much stuff. He had given me so much stuff. He had given me so much stability. I didn't have to go in the streets and run around, get shot at, everybody getting robbed, going to jail. Even though I went from being able to get my hair fixed, buy the things that I want, do the things that I want, to go down and say, well, I can't do that anymore. I have a question that is none of my business. And I don't know how to preface it in a way that makes this question appropriate. But I want to ask this question and ask it. So you are supporting two of your kids and four of your sister's kids. You're selling drugs. I'm not talking about you as a person, your soul, your heart, your being, your character. I'm saying At that time, I'm coming out of selling drugs. Before you meet him? Before I met him, I was selling drugs. Right. So what I'm saying is you're selling drugs and you're supporting six children. And there's a lot of obstacles there. If I were to meet a woman with six kids who's selling drugs, she better had on some really nice pants. What would you say if a guy walked in for an interview without a shirt on? And I hired him. What would you say? He must have had on some really nice pants. Let me say this to you. I wasn't selling drugs when I, I mean, I wasn't, I didn't have the six kids. After I met my husband and we moved in. No, no. This is before. I'm saying when you meet your husband, I only have two kids. Oh, you're not supporting the four yet. No, I'm not. Okay. So still, you have two kids. You're on the street. He obviously saw something in you that made it worth hoping that the drugs selling would stop soon. Yes. What is it that he saw? And I'm not saying what existed in you because obviously we know this now. I'm saying what is it that he was able to see and why was he able to see that as somebody like when you go out and date somebody now, you go on a first date and if I fart on a first date, a girl might be like, oh, he's not a good person. I mean, that's a bit hyperbolic, but like, what is it that this person sees in you? And again, I know I'm over communicating, but I'm not asking what's inside of you. I'm saying, what is he able to see on a first date on a second date where he is interested in? This is a woman who I think I could fall in love with when there's such an obstacle because you said he was pressing you to stop the drug. So obviously he didn't want you to keep doing that. Yeah, he did. What did you show him and what was he able to see where this, again, I'm sorry if this is a disrespectful question, is worth the investment into somebody who is on track for being such a liability to him? I was a liability. I don't know. You have to ask him that. I do remember having a conversation with him and he said, you're a smart person. He said, he said, do you think if you wasn't selling drugs and you went out to college, you would date somebody like me? And I asked him one day, I said, why do you say that? Because I always thought my husband was really he's a very smart person. He reads all the time. He know everything that's going on in the world. To me, I was a hood rat. So I don't know. I just think he got to know the other side of me and realize I'm just a woman out here with kids who's been left alone, who was trying to survive. And he stepped in and he provided me the stability that I needed. So maybe maybe, I mean, I always said I'm thinking I'm a pretty good person. I think at that time in my life, I was just looking to be loved. So maybe that's what he saw. How did you guys meet? My brother, my brother, a girlfriend at the time, went to school with his brother. So we rode by his mama house and he was standing out there and I was like, oh, he make a cute stepdaddy. So at first you saw him, you were attracted to him physically. Yes. And then you go up and talk to him? No, we went to the club that night. He was kind of on a little date with somebody I already knew. And I just kept talking to her. I was like, fuck her. And were you making him laugh? Yeah, I was talking because he was asking me dumb questions like, is that your real hair? I was like, yeah, I bought it. He's like, are those your real titties? I said, yeah, I grew them. And so we just started having conversations and we switched numbers and then he started giving me a ride and he would come over to my house and you know, spend the night and just talk. And I was like, this guy's weird. He's not trying to have sex with me. And your kids are old enough now. They're nine, ten years, right? No, my kids was like five and six. They was kindergarten and first grade. Oh, 22, right. Yeah, somewhere in there. Did you get along with them right away? Yes. So I would go out and borrow his car to go for his checks. He didn't know what I was doing, but he was I come home one day and he said, you know how smart your daughter is? And I was like, what are you talking about? He's like, she can read and everything. I'm like, yeah. I mean, even though I sold drugs, I still sat on the corner with flashcards. When did he find out that you sell drugs and forged checks? And did he find out or did you tell him? His brother knew. So kind of told him you know, a little bit into the relationship. And you were trying to hide it from him. I didn't really care at the time. Well, you said you borrowed his car. He wouldn't know where you were going. There had to have been a conscious choice to not say, hey, I'm going to go do this thing. Well, I don't know if he I think his brother probably told him but he kind of knew I was in his streets. But I don't think he knew I was forging checks at the time. You know, I think he knew I was in the streets. But I think that's why I fell in love with him too because he never judged me. I mean, we never discussed. I dropped out of school in the eighth grade. He didn't care. You know, he just he stepped in and became the father that my kids needed. And it's the best relationship I ever had in my life. Yeah, you felt, obviously you feel seen by him. You feel seen by him. Now, over 32 years, he done got a little dull. He got, I think he got glucose and cataracts sometimes. But he's always been there. And that's why when all of these things God blessed me with over the years and he worked at General Motors for 22 years. And I said you need to work at General Motors 30 years before you can retire. I said, I'm asking you to retire. How long was he there for? 22. So he would have needed eight more. He would have needed eight more years. And you're saying that because of the success of financial success that you've been having? Yes. That you're like, hey, we could do this? Yes. How long ago was that? He'd been retiring at like three, three, four years. Yeah. On the show, you talk about how the character, like, oh, you've made it because they're saying you got out, etc. But from you, you were talking about like, well, not yet as a comedian and as a performer. You're saying, but I'm making my way, you know, you end up almost doing porn. Like, you're doing all these different things. You're trying to figure it out. Um, in real life, how do you see yourself with that kind of stuff? I don't see myself like other people see me. You know, everybody think, uh, I think a lot of people say they see fame. I don't use the word I'm famous. I tell people, I just, I have a job like you do. And, you know, um, uh, I think my kids see me as being famous, but, and I don't know if I'm downplaying myself because a lot of people say I do, but I just see a person with a job I have a job that legal now, you know, that's how I see it. And somebody told me I had imposter syndrome. OK, so I don't know. I just I don't see I don't see the Miss Pat everybody else see because I still got that voice in my head from my mama telling me that ain't shit. And that's one of the biggest thing I fight through when something happened for me. I don't ever think I deserve it. When good things, when most people see good things, I doubt myself. And I do that a lot. And I don't know why. But it's a voice for my mama. They say ain't shit all the time. There's a scene in the episode where you're looking in the mirror. And your mom is speaking poorly about your looks, your hair. You're talking in the mirror to your younger self and then the mom comes around and tells her to go away, whatever. Then the mom comes through and then you have a moment with the mom where you said, tell her she's beautiful, which I thought is a nice moment. It's now you in charge of yourself when you weren't back then telling your mom what you needed then that episode could have ended there. It didn't. It then went her. I don't know what she said, but she said something like fuck off or whatever. And then she walks away and it could have left on you. It could have left on you with a reaction of the trauma, but it didn't. You laughed, which I'm getting goosebumps now thinking about it. Again, I don't know what's intentional, what isn't, what is subconscious, what isn't. But to me, it read as you want this for your younger self. But the mom's talking to you now and she's not giving it to you. No, she's not. But your older self was able to laugh it off. And say, that's why you did, bitch. Yeah. And it's just, it's so. It's, it's therapy, you know, I mean, it's so like, it seems like you go to therapy or whoever is writing with you talks to you about this stuff. And, and, you know, because like, it's, it's beautiful. And that choice to laugh at it was where, where does that come from in the process of writing to rehearsal? Well, one of the things I told, I always told Jordan, I said, you know, when you can laugh about something in your life. You got control over it. And it wasn't until I can laugh about the things that I went through that, you know, I knew I was, I was healing. You know, because you didn't cry about, I can say here and we can cry about what I've been through in life. But I chose to laugh about it. And I chose to. They're not mutually exclusive though. I mean, to, to, to feel that the reason you were able to connect to that scene with your younger self when you, the other, another episode. In the, in the parking lot. And when you had the kids swearing was because it's still in you. So just because you're laughing at it doesn't mean that one is over it. It just means that one, it's, it's a next step to accepting it. Well, you can't change the past. I told you that. But what I've learned in life is to, when you hate somebody or you hate something, the hate will control you. So I've learned to forgive the people that hurt me so I can smile. That's what Jesus was talking about. So I can live. You know, I don't read the Bible, but I'm quite sure you're right. But that's what has helped me to forgive the people that who harm me because I can't change it. What am I going to do to my baby daddy? I've told him several times. I said, what you did to me was molestation. Yeah. It was rape. You should have been in jail. You're a 22 year old married man and you got a 13 year old girl pregnant. You should have been in prison. I truly believe because I was black and poor in America. Nobody gave a damn. That's what I think. They don't care. They don't care about poor people, period. But me being on black was a cherry to the top. They didn't care. He should have been in jail. If that shit happened today, he would be in jail. Who knew about it? Did people know about it? Everybody knew about it. The casework and everything. They tried to get my mama to prosecute him, but she wouldn't because I found out writing my first book, the same thing happened to my daddy was like nine years older than my mom. How old was your mom when she had you? My mama was 12. 22 with her six. I was a six child. How old was your mom when she had her first? I think she was 13. Wow. Yeah. You said it in one of the episodes. You said it to the principal when your daughter got into a fight and you said, I'm just trying the best I can to like not have what happened to me happen to them. I feel so emotional right now. Thank you. Also, I know we got to wrap it up, right? Well, I hope people will watch it. You go back and watch season one through four. Season five will be out. It will be out soon. And, you know, it's a show that would take you on a roller coaster. Yes, we do curse. Yes, we do use a certain type of language that you can't use on mainstream TV. But when I tell you, people always say, you know, people was looking at us like we was crazy because we was the first show to be nominated for three Emmys on BET. Three, not one, but three times. And that made me proud to say, I know I'm not going to win. I'm up here against all of you. I'm up here against all these big ass shows. And they're good shows, too. But, hey, I am on the ball field. And it's not about it's never been about taking home a trophy. I always say that we're the people champ. You know, I've seen shows win Emmys and get canceled the same day of the next year. What I love about the Miss Pat show. Oh, you have two Emmys. No, no. HCA Awards. Go on. What are they for? One of them is for a show. I was on. I was on Amazon called As We See It. It's my favorite thing. I think I'm most proud of I've ever made, but it got canceled right after. And the other one, they made me a it's not it's not real, but the guy made me a fake one for this podcast. Oh, so there's really only one of them. But I was just doing that as a bit because we were talking about how trophies don't matter. And I'm thinking maybe to my to my co-creator, they does. To me, it doesn't signify me to say what we're doing is the right thing is that when they keep bringing us. Back and all the conversations that I have with people from cancer today. All I ever wanted to do with Miss Pat show is to make it to season five. Make it a season five, because I used to call this show. This show got fucked over so much in Hollywood, so much in Hollywood. Even after it was made, they kept testing it to make sure people liked it. I mean, they were sent it to the whitest place. Alpharetta, Georgia, white part of New York. I was just in Alpharetta, Georgia. Yeah. And they would let people watch it. And then they'd sell them. Oh, this is a good show because they didn't think that I was a crossover actor because I'm mean. I don't know how to be nothing but me. And if you fall in love with Miss Pat, I'm just happen to be black and I don't know how to be nothing else. I'm mean. And that's one thing Hollywood would never change for me. Five years is also has been historically the level of a successful show. It's Star Trek. The opening the about the show is they're on a five year mission. The reason they even did that was because they were hoping to get five seasons out of it. Five seasons is kind of like the. Yes. The thing. And, you know, I hope we get a six season over there. But if I'm not, I'm complete. Well, that's why I think trophies and awards jokes aside are relevant. It's not a guarantee. But once you start getting that type of a claim, it does make it harder for the network to cancel the show because they want that. They want to say what they're. They want to say what their networks have taken. So like being nominated even just is really ego aside. It's just really important for the potential success of the show and all the people that work on it. Well, I hope BET appreciate me as much as I appreciate them, you know, and I hope I hope the station, the station stay around and my name will always be attached. The first one to ever get an Emmy nomination for BET and BET plus. And, you know, I can't. I can't say anything else, but I'm just I'm proud of the show. It's a beautiful show. And thank you for telling people to go watch it. I mean, it means a lot. You got four seasons over 40 episodes that you can really take yourself on an emotional roller coaster and learn more about me as an artist. The whole cast. It's it's a it's a fantastic show. So I know we've already said it and I know I've said it a bunch, but whatever recommendations you take sincerely. I'm going to be binging, though. I mean, it's just I'm laughing out loud and I'm crying. It's fantastic. So congratulations. And it's a pleasure to meet you. And I didn't know what the energy would be like because I'm a little sick and we don't know each other yet. And my silly and you're silly or perhaps different frequencies. Oh, no, you're just a little bit smarter than me. So I had to catch it. I said, OK, he want to use his little college degree on me in this private school. You know, I said epidermis one side. You're kind of using it against me. And I went. To special schools. I was in the learning disability class. I'm an idiot. No, I'm an idiot. No, you're not an idiot. Those are fine words. And so I was like, oh, OK, I got to step back for a second and listen to him. I'm a I'm a I'm sincerely a fan of yours. And I was when they whoever reached out to say because you're going on this this this run for the show and to have you on it. I was so excited. I was hoping it went through. So thank you very much. Also, thank you for wearing the socks. Well, it's cold in here. I'm glad I got on socks. OK. It was a, unless I can't imagine you don't want me to put this in, but I won't, but I met you outside and you had the, just the, by the way, if you ever feel like an imposter and you're not successful, take a look at how you roll up the podcasts, just in this big black car with all your, with your team that, you know, like couldn't fit in this room. And just, and you, you said she was helping you with the socks. Is it fine that we talk about this? She was helping you with the socks. And I, and I, I both feel bad. And also this is what it is. Like, if you're not wearing socks, I'm sorry, I'm asking this of you, but I don't, I take your shoes off and I don't like the bare feet in my house. And she's helping you with the socks and you put your, your, your slippers on, which to me, I think, were they, were they Gucci? Yes. Yeah. And, and someone's put them on and you said, I can't bend down. So somebody has to do this for me. Yes. And I thought, I smashed my vagina. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And I'm like, I mean, that's what, that's what a queen enters a place. Just somebody, you know, here's your, here's your, you know, it was a crown, but for your feet. Oh no. So anyway, she's my assistant. Pleasure to meet you. I'm going to take a Polaroid of you and then we're done. Okay. Thank you. Season five of, of the Ms. Pat show airs January 7th. We'll voice it over if it comes out by then. Okay. And if not, the four seasons are on apparently not just BET plus, but Amazon as well. Amazon as well. All right. Steam music. And the court show. I have a court show called Ms. Pat Settles it also. Oh yeah. Yeah. I've never, I've only seen, I've seen clips of it. I haven't watched it yet. I absolutely will. It looks funny. It is funny. Very funny. What's it called again? Ms. Pat Settles it. Ms. Pat Settles it. Yes. And you, it's a, it's a, it's a judge show. I'm a judge. But are they, obviously you're not taking legal, you don't have legal precedence on this. No. Legal standing. No, it's just regular people. Are they real, is it scripted or are they real people? No, they're real people. Yeah. Great. Yeah. This, this season was the first season we kind of really did like our influencers. So we have an influencer family and then we have a friend section. So this season, the third season is kind of broke off into three different things. But yeah, it's fun. My kids are actually on there and I did not know they was going to be on there. They came in to settle something? Yes. Yes. My, I have a gay daughter and my son sued, my daughter sued my son. For being straight? No. For going to the script club and spending her money. And he didn't give her no money. He didn't pay her back. Yeah. Great. I'm excited to watch that. Thank you. Really nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. Theme music. I'm going to get a picture. Blubbity blue scoop. Oh yeah.