Tommy Davidson on Finding His Identity, Race & Comedy

Today's guest is a true force in comedy and culture, Tommy Davidson. From in-living color to the proud family, he's built a career that's made us laugh for decades, but at the center of it all is identity. Because how do you find your voice and hold on to it? How do you grow and still stay true to who you are as an artist, a black man in Hollywood, and as a father? Today we're getting into the origins, the journey, the lessons, and the man behind the laughter. I'm so excited for this one. Today's episode is brought to you by our presenting sponsor, Starbucks. Falls most iconic beverage is here. The Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte is back to kick off the season. Order now on the app. Tommy Davidson, come on out. [laughter] Oh my gosh, I'm so excited! I'm so excited! You good? You good? Yes. This is different. Oh my gosh. This is different. This is different. This is different. Okay, so let me get this straight. We're shooting the matrix. [laughter] Exactly. Exactly. You're gonna do it right, ain't you, man? Oh my gosh. You're gonna do it the right way. I'm fine. You look great. I'm fine. I feel pretty good. I feel like I look like a bomb a little bit, but that's good. You know what I mean? It's great hair over there. The fashion is fashioning. That's my story. Am I doing okay? You're doing great. You're doing great. You too? Oh my gosh, thank you. You too? That's my thing. Like you do your thing. These are called cross compliments. [laughter] Okay, let's get into this pre-show pull up. We do this with all our guests. I had to chop it down because I would, this would be the whole day on interview. Okay. So, Zodiac sign, you're Scorpio. I feel like I'm surprised by this. Do you feel very Scorpio-y? I guess so. I guess, in a way, I mean, we're supposed to be strong, wild. Yes. You know? And, you know, not too smart. You're supposed to yell at very smart. You know, in the sort of relationship area, whatever, I mean, that's the reputation. That's the reputation. Yeah. And so, what about your rising or your moon? Do you know any of that stuff? I don't know it. Per se. Yeah, you don't know per se. Yeah, I know it in a historical sense. To that me. Well, I mean, the Zodiac itself was an adaption of-- Yes, yes. I mean, the ceiling of Dungera, you know, it's an African thing and came out of that, you know. So, I know that stuff. That's fabulous. But, you know, I'm in the USA, so, you know, hey, when it's Starbucks open. Okay. What is your love language? You just said I love love. Now, if you say I love love, what does that mean? Are you complimenting? Are you very physical touch? Are you kind of like, I'm going to do services for you. What's your vibe? It's just I love love. I love love, and I know what it really is. Not that I know what it really is over anyone else. Yes, yes. But the love that I've experienced, the love that I've experienced has made me love love. You know. So, you know, and I'll tell you about that, I'm black, as you can see, you know what I mean. But you couldn't tell when I was in high school you didn't know who my sister was, so you didn't know that my family was white. So my mother would come, like, we used to be late to school, right? Yeah, yeah. But when we got late to school, we had to sign up for detention, me and my sister used to be a snow day, we missed the bus, we had to walk, right? So they would send my sister, whose white, and blonde, to class, and they would send me to sign up for detention. So my white mom would show up and say, why did you send my daughter to class and my son to sign up for detention? And they'd say, I didn't know that was your son, okay? So, and she wasn't using good language neither, okay? Okay. In first grade, okay, I raised the black power fist and got sent to the principal's office for putting up the black power sign for the pledge allegiance, right? And so they called my mom and said, your son is in the office, he put up the black power sign, the black panther sign in class, we need you to come down here. She kind of liked to do that because when she walked in, I used to think she was crazy, she's like, where is he, you know? So she went to the principal and said, what the, is my son doing in your office? She knew, right? Yeah, yeah. And then they told her, and they told her, he put the black power sign up and she told them, I never forget that she said, well, that's all he knows about him right now. He knows where he came from, but if you want to teach him something new, he learns fast, you know? And I did a pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and I can do the whole thing. Okay. So when I say I love love, yeah, I had to come to love it because originally I didn't know I was black. Wow. I thought my sister and my mom and my dad and my grandmother and my aunts and everybody were beige. Right. Cause I learned to have to keep crayons. I didn't find out I was black until I was five. And even just would contextually what it means, that's why you know it becomes all this construct type of stuff, you know what I mean? Yeah. Right. So we loved me and my sister, we were farms and stuff we grew up farming in Fort Collins, Colorado. Yeah. There was a lot of different cultures, environments. Well, there was a lot of animal births, you know what I mean? Right. So we love litters like kittens were coming or puppies were coming and the mom could be a black cat and have three white ones, a gray one and a orange one. So I thought that's how we were until we moved from there when they divorced to Washington, DC in 1960. Come on. I don't know that because we're in the car and there's there's tear gas. It's going off in fires and we're on the floor, right? So I don't know where we are actually. I know we're in Fort Collins no more, right? And you know, my sister, look, when I was little she looked like Cindy Brady and my brother looked like David Cassidy. He was from parts of family and she was from the baby plant. You're both of them were from dysfunctional stuff, I think, but that's my growing self saying that. But when we got there, the black kids beat our ass every day. The black kids beat all your ass now. What do you call them? The brown kids. The brown kids. Yeah. And it was actually black folks. Yeah. And they beat all your ass. Every day. Every single day. And they were calling my sister and brother white cracker and they were calling me white cracker lover. I've told this story on podcast before, but you say, I love love. I love love for these reasons, right? It took a while to get to that, right? So through my anger and through growing through it and then why does that then be in the middle of it all? And I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything but get abandoned in the trash and they found me. Well, that's what so, you know what I mean? So that's where this all came from. This is exactly what I wanted to talk to you about today. It's a great question. About identity, right? Yeah. Because it means so many different things as a man, as a black person, just as a person, as your generation. I mean, we could break it down to so many questions. So many questions. Yeah. And you said you were found in a trash when it 18 months old, I think I had read. Yeah. And so tell me, let's talk about the origin of that. So your mom, your adopted mother, Barbara, she found you in the trash and how did she, how did she find you? It was a national address by John F. Kennedy where he addressed White America and said, if you could do something about the rate, if you can say that you did, in the future, can you say that you did something about this country's race problem? Wow. Right. And my parents worked at Colorado State University and they said, you know, we're going to do something and they look for something to do. They found out that in Greenville, Mississippi, they were having a problem with immunizing children. There was some voting drives. They wanted to go. And they went there. It was the poorest, one of the poorest towns in country. So they figured and they knew it was all black. So they went there to do that and they wanted to do voting drives, you know, and they did that. My mom, who gave me birth, was helping them with that. She was young and, you know, they all were young, you know, and they met her and she helped them with that and blah, blah, blah, blah. And all of this is, I'm telling you in, in, in recollection. Sure. Sure. You know, so they went back to where they were from, not knowing anything about Tommy Jean. Her name was Tommy Jean, so my mother named me after her. So yeah. You have to be a biological mother, because you knew her, right? And I met her too, years later. I can't wait to get into that. But I want to come here, because I'm in it. Amen. Amen. The coffee's good here. So yeah, and everybody's really, really nice, okay? So let me get it. This is like, we are the world. Everything is here. Everything is here. Everything is here. Everything is like, I love love. This is like, soul train up in this bitch. Yes, please. You know what I'm like? Okay, I can do this. Yeah. go back going somewhere else and wanted to stop in the town and they did. And they were looking for Tamagin and people said she left. We think she left her youngest child at such and such as house. And my mother was nosy, you know, and she went there and it was an empty house. People were doing drugs and drinking. Damn. She left out of there and she said something told her to look under a tire that was on top of this trash heap and she saw my foot. Oh my gosh. And she and took the trash and there I was laying there unconscious. Dirty as I don't know what I had a t-shirt on that was red. I love you. You thank me. The president in two zero and then the rest was torn. So they took me to the hospital. I was in a coma, starved. I stayed there for like 60 days and left. So the only thing I remember from that point on the thing the first thing I remember from that point on was I remember being in front of a Christmas tree early early before Christmas playing with a red truck of a fire truck and my dad came out and said that's not for you yet. You know, that's as far back as I can remember up till I was about five coming to DC. So all of those things pretty much composed the guy here, you know. So that was a great question, you know. And I actually got it from Smokey Robinson because I was at a concert of his and he said, I love love it. I was like, I do too. You know, and that's what hit me. You know, me and him ended up being friends. Everything comes to the answer if you live it out, right? Yeah. My mom has always said, just keep living, just keep living. Yeah. He ended up being really key for me because a woman died in my show when I was in Philadelphia doing this. This couldn't have been probably about maybe probably about 15, 16 years ago, maybe in Philadelphia. I invited her to show. I was at a check cash and place on the Sunday. It was packed. It was closed. She opened the door. Yeah. Yeah. They let me in. Everybody was like, Oh, man, Tommy Davidson is here. Who's Tommy? You know, she looked up as she's just working on the line. She said, Oh, it is. You know, she sure is. So when I got up there to her, she said, white woman, right? They're a long story. But yeah, they're probably should be the president here because, and I'll explain that. But, but she says, you're in town. Wow. She said, you made my birthday. And I said, you know what? Why don't you come to the show? She said, can I bring my kids and they were like 21, 20. I said, sure. Bring them 15 minutes into the show. She passes out. She collapses. It has a massive heart attack. No one knows. This is so crazy. The ambulance comes in. They tell us, and everybody walked out one by one, right? And I felt a kind of way because my mother had just passed. So I'm back there with her kids who are hysteric. There was not a dry eye in the place audience or workers. And the managers asked me, do you have one and have a second show? And it's up to me. I was like, you're going to leave that up to me. And so finally, I said, yeah, let's have a second show because our job is here to dispense happy. Yeah. You know, this world ain't got enough of it. So let's go ahead and do that, right? As they were walking out, I'm a little bit more emotional these days. You know, I'm thinking I'm a woman. Now I think I'm coming on my, you know, I don't know what it is. You know, I feel I know I know how you're feeling now because I'm like, what the heck is going on with me? I'm crying all the time. You know, is that what happened? And at least I have some kind of understanding and can do something about it. And I can't, you know, so, so, so, I'm going to be totally honest. So, so, and they're walking out and people are shaking their hands and all the comics are at front, right? You know, shaking these people hand, they bought them all drinks and didn't charge them anything. And this beautiful black one walks up to me and she says, um, isn't that beautiful? What is she talking about? Why? She said of all the things in the world that the Lord could have done to brought her up to heaven. He brought her to you to laugh her way on out of here. And I wasn't done with it yet. I wasn't done because I didn't, I wasn't happy with what happened. Yeah. Right? It was so sudden and it was so, you know what I mean? So, I saw Smokey Robinson on the plane. And I had known him for years. He brought one of my ties, you know, with the company little tie company me and my wife put together and she, you know what I mean? Her wife bought all the ties, you know what I mean? And so he was there and I've known him since I got to Hollywood and a lot of other people, which I thought would never happen to me. Oh my god. And he was in first class and I went up there. I was on Southwest. And I wasn't in first class. I don't know what I was on, but I wasn't in first class with him. And I don't care. Regis, Regis from Regis and Kathleen taught me to take Southwest. That's, that's, Southwest is **** okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You had this person tell you **** like that. Do it, right? I think he is because he was right. So, so, so, so, so, yeah, and I've been rolling ever since. They even got first class and that's a little hard on there and you get movies. So, so, and they give you a pistachios for free. So, so, so, I'd go up to him and I'd go, I'm trying to get an answer for what happened. Oh my gosh. And I ask him, amen. Is this ever happened to you? Right. Because I mean, his career you would have been hit possibly. Yeah. And he says, no, man. He says, um, for now on, invite all your, your enemies to your show because you're killing them, baby. And I laughed and I was okay. And I was all right. Oh my god. And it paid itself off. I was at this tribute for Bobby Brown. Everybody knows who he went through. Yes. You know, and there we were. Everybody from Motown was there. Yeah. Smokey was there. And I got to feel like a real slab that I know what I'm talking about. And I'm like, Bob, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, Bob Hope at the Texas, you know, at the, at the Texaco, you know, hi, Bob Hope here. You know, and I'm like, Smiley Robinson told me, told me this on a plane. And everybody just laughed. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, yeah, but that really happened. So when you say, um, when I say I love love, I do because the people that loved me through my life weren't one color. Oh, I mean, what does that, the, well, another thing that I'm hearing with this too is the role of comedy. Mm-hmm. You know, and I'm curious for you. Did you, when did you realize you were funny? Mm-hmm. And when did you realize that comedy had a greater impact or that lack making people laugh could have such a powerful impact? Well, what term is it right now? I'm ready to go. Everything used to come on. Let's get it to you. It seems like right now. It's been lately. Yeah. Because I didn't really like, well, I didn't like really like comedy when I was a kid. I love music. That's so interesting. I love plays. I love, I love, you know, performing. I was taking, I was taking my Academy Award in my backyard, you know, for, you know, Poseidon adventure. You know, my, my heroes were like Ernest Borgnein. I mean, you know, I mean, I was, you know, I was a Hollywood wanting to be. Yeah. You really was studying the crowd across the whole. Yeah, man. So, you know, I don't, I don't, um, I never really gravitated towards comedy, but I was a funny kid. But I didn't like being funny. Yes. Right. That's hilarious. It was tough because I'd be at the, the table that Thanksgiving or Christmas with all the whole family. And I say to everybody start laughing. And I didn't feel good about that actually. And I finally asked my mom, you know, why does everybody always laugh at me? Right. And she said, they're not laughing at you, boy. She said, you have a way of, you, she said, you have a way of making people happy so fast that all they can do is laugh first before they can even think. And I didn't apply that until like, probably about a little bit after she passed away, I was able to apply that to, to, to the whole picture. Yeah. You know, um, uh, it was tough, you know, um, being in DC and growing up there, in a sense that it was isolating in a way because I've been in between black and white for a long time. Yeah. I don't feel that way now. And I'm just so curious about how that, but it was such a local anesthesia, man. Yeah. I mean, in, you know, at the time, and then when you think about a city like 60, 60, 68. Yeah. When we moved there, and I learned what black and white was, yeah, uh, uh, through the experience. Yeah. So why went to my mother and said, you know, why do they call me white cracker lover because I like graham crackers? That was my understanding. Yeah. My crackers are kind of dry. I haven't with water. You know, graham crackers are good. Man, they sweet and give some apple juice. Next thing you know, you're asleep on the mat in, in, in kindergarten or whatever. So that was at the point where she told me like, okay, she, here you go. Yeah. People, your color, call people are color that when they don't like them. And I was like, well, what color are you? That's really. Here we go, right? Yeah. Here go my education. She said, um, uh, and I say, well, what color are you? She said, we're white. I said, no, you're beige like the crayons. See? So she said, yeah, but that's what they call us. And I was like, I mean, this is such stupid. Like, I remember having these these conversations with my parents, but they were black, you know, they are black. So when I'm hearing you say this, and I'm thinking about, I really wish that I could know what kind of person that Barbara is because she had the task of teaching you this and helping you to understand this, but then at the same time, you were the kind of kid that was able to put up the black power. - Right, right, right, right. - So you were also quite aware of having your pride around blackness, even within the confusion. So, I mean, what she's sitting you down, having you watch movies, like how did she teach you about that and you being able to integrate the love for your blackness while also understanding clearly what some of the issues that could be around it because of race, like that was a lot. ♪ Baby, this is, we keep all the yeah ♪ - You know what just came back into my life like it never left? The Starbucks pumpkin spice latte, and the second I saw it on my Starbucks app, I knew fall was just around the corner. The first sip took me right back to that fall feeling and I remember how much I-L-O-V-E this part of the year. I can't wait for the leads to have their whole moment and the air to finally have some personality to it. When I actually wanna be outside instead of rushing past everything, that's what I'm excited for. It's funny how a walk I've done a hundred times feels brand new just because fall is almost here. That's the thing about fall rituals. They're familiar in the best way. The iconic Starbucks pumpkin spice latte falls right into that category for me. Same drink, same me. But somehow it feels like a whole moment every single time it comes back. So let this be your sign to slow down, soak the season in and grab a Starbucks pumpkin spice latte as fall begins. Celebrate fall with the return of the iconic pumpkin spice latte. Order now on the Starbucks app. Taste like fall. I think I just found our next family trip and it's Asheville, North Carolina. Yes, September is when the leaves start turning and I am building this entire trip around a porch. I need to find a home on Airbnb with the real porch because I can already picture mornings out there with coffee and evenings watching the mountains change color while my parents pretend they're not getting emotional about it. I'm putting the River Arts District on the list too because watching Glassblow's work is like the kind of thing that my sister will talk about for years. My dad's already asking if Asheville has good barbecue, which yes, obviously that's so locked in. We're also doing the built-more one afternoon. It's this gorgeous, gilded age mansion right outside of the city that makes you feel like you've been transported to Versailles. I want to watch my parents walk those gardens like kids again. So what I'm saying is find a place to stay on Airbnb and Asheville this fall. I'm building the whole trip around that porch so we can get that magical home away from home feel and I'm not even sorry about it. Yeah, but that was a great question because that's how I, you know, that's how I learned to love love because I didn't know anything about that, right? But my family, that's white. My grandfather, I was boiled. My grandfather was a cowboy from Wyoming. He did chemistry, he did a, he was a scientist that did work for coal mines in, in, in, in Bolivia. You know, so they spoke, uh, uh, fluid Spanish and the whole nine yards. My grandfather would get on the floor with me when I'm playing Cowboys and Indians and say, all right, the Indians are the heroes and the Cowboys are not, let's play. So it's the, yeah. Yeah. So if there's ever a stereotype, if every, there's a stereotype, there ain't because, because all black people link the same and all white people link the same. You know, racism is, it isn't, it ain't it wasn't. Okay. Yeah, so these are the things that, the, the ethics, I paid for, I paid for yesterday, I paid for not listening to my mama about the word bitch. Yeah. Because if we say anything, we got punished. That's right. Clean up our weekend, we, we had to go to our rooms, whatever. And I used that word in my comedy early out, you know, in reference to, uh, Deon Warwick. Just in a comedy thing. Yeah. And her son hated, hated that, wanted to fight me and I didn't see her for years. But she was a big part of my life. Mm-hmm. You know, she, her, her, her as a singer, she influenced me as a kid. Yeah. Her and Brooke Bakarack and all that beautiful music. Yeah. You know, those people were revolutionary about getting together. There's a lot of, you know, feedback about the inward. And it, we come across it up and down within our culture. Some people feel like it's a reclamation that you have other people that feel like it is the opposite, you know what I mean? And so it's interesting. And the beginning of your comedy, you used it. But then as time went on, you were like, nah. Well, it didn't work. No, my, my mom was right. You know, she punished me for a reason. You know, and, and, and since I got, when I got to Hollywood under my comedian, I'm watching Eddie Murphy, I'm watching all these people. And, and, and, you know, that becomes a word that just gets thrown away and blah, blah, blah. I met Dion. It was my chance to apologize to her for that. Wow. And I didn't really realize that I broke my mother's promise, you know? And so I was able to go to her room and give her a big ol' hug. And she was feeling it too. She wasn't happy about, about that. But, you know, I learned through other means of learning how to live better, you know, through my own personal stuff that apologies aren't nothing atonement and changing your behaviors. So I'm like, why sit here when you have a chance? Yeah. To go on apologies to her sincerely and personally. And I gave her the hug and she gave me the biggest hug. And it was, wasn't until that moment that I really realized, again, how much I was loved. Because if it wasn't for my mother, well, if it wasn't for Helen Redding. Because, because, you know, I am woman here, me roar, and the woman's movement, that's what freed us all. You know, that's freed us all. I can have my own job. I ain't got to be pregnant and in the kitchen and cooking for some men that's just, you know, I can be independent in all of these things. And that was the lesson that was taught, not the lesson that was taught. That's the societal lesson that came out of the poor, poor white women in this city that died in a fire somewhere in this city that couldn't even vote, you see? So, so, so power to the people. Yeah. So it's, it's, it's, it's, it's that, it's that boomerang of a higher love. So you're also talking about, because I think I was misunderstood. You're talking about the B word. Right, right, what's in it. Yeah, exactly. What's in it? Yeah, yeah. And my mom taught me that early and I, and, and I discarded it because I was on, I was on a train to this success as a comedian and I didn't heat it. Well, this makes me ask you, you know what I mean? Ask you about what, because this is exactly where I was headed when it comes to comedy. And when it comes to perform, performance, comedy, and how that aligns with what you truly believe and think and when you're trying to sell a concept or a message. Like, how do you waver that? You know, because a lot of people feel like, well, this is stage, you know, this is a performance. So this is not what I believe. This is just the idea that I'm, you know, pointing out, how do, because I think that's the question that a lot of comedians are asking themselves because public, the public is pushing back more than ever as it pertains to the integrity of someone in their comedy. And so, it's the way of the world. How do you, how have you found, because somebody might say, it's just a B word, or it's just the X, Y, and Z word, or it's just the thing, but I mean, you clearly feel that that impact carries further than just a joke. Yeah, well, you know, the human impact doesn't really, really, really count until the impact's your ass. Okay, so, the guy who says, just go ahead and send the missile and if it kills the little girls in the school, okay. You do something like that for just money, you know, and an eight, one particular color that will do it. Yeah. You know, and I learned that from her when you fire, that's the way of the world. Love Earth would have found it. You know, yeah, plant the flower, and you grow a pearl. It came from all of us. Mm-hmm. You know, the other guy had a song. Bring me our high, your love, love that song. We can go all on and on. You know, the cats and the cradle and the silver spoon, little boy, blue and the man on the moon. American is important. It's important more than just the color. Mm-hmm. It's important to the culture. Yeah. And it's what it can still in this crazy world. Yeah. And that's not a political statement. That's a statement about life and cycle and living. Yeah. Yeah. Just the pattern. I mean, history would tell you that the pattern had changed. You're changing nothing. You know, as an individual, but it starts there. Yeah, yeah. And this is all opinion. This is all subjective. This is all that's coming from me. But I can talk today. You know, I can talk about the experiences. You know, a lot of times that the experience isn't there or the information isn't there to back it up, then the belief isn't as strong, it's hard, it's hard to phone that in, you know? Yeah. You tell me, you know, I looked at this thing last night and I was like, there may be this space link thing is good because this laptop looks nice and silver and maybe this is the way I can do my, it'll give me a new speed on my computer and stuff like that. It's got Starlink and all this. Wait a second. And I'm going, why is the person who got the most money in the damn world ain't given nobody nothing? You know? And if you're mad about me, then okay. But you're trying to make even more. But it's like, it's like what you're going to do. It's so true what you're saying because a lot of times. And I was ready to give a dollar. I'm ready to go like, if that's all I got to do to get more high speed on my, on my computer than I'm going to do it, then I would wait a second, why am I giving this dude another dime? Not because of him personally. No, but just because of the functions of it all. Yeah. But. I get it. Hey man, my mama would kick my ass if I was a richest person on earth and I ain't break off a dollar for somebody who's hungry. It's true. And I ain't scared to say it. And I sometimes with myself and I'm sometimes thinking to myself, damn like, I don't want to think that everybody that has that type of cash is, you know, they have this thing online where it's like, there's no ethical billionaires, there's no ethical billionaires. You know, and it makes me feel like, damn, really could that be so true. But it does leave you with the question of damn, like, I mean, I don't know because I'm not a billionaire, but I would hope to believe that I'd have something to break off. James Taylor, I seen fire and I seen rain, no facts that exist. What do that mean? Never, never thought I wouldn't see you again. This is limited. A bank account is limited to life's longevity. So whatever mountain you, I can, I can build a mountain of dollar bills, you know, damn near to the sun. But when it's time to go, I'm leaving it back here. Right. That's what James Taylor got to do with it. We all are involved, that's what you two got to do with it. That's what, that's what, that's what our Kanye got to do with it. That's what all of us down here got to do with it. You know, I go to the bodega this morning, I'm so glad to be in New York, I'm like, give me a cheese and give me a white bread with Prostromy, American cheese and scrambled eggs and that's what I'm talking about, that's what I'm talking about, it's a party, it's the funniest thing. It's a party, yeah, everything I do is a part of me, like I told you, my, my, my, my mother's spoke fluent Spanish, so I understand fluent Spanish. I can't speak it, but I understand it right. So in my neighborhood, if you're, if you were Guatemala and Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican, whatever, can, you know, they came to my mother's house and she would help them with this and help them with that and help them with this and help them with that. Encyclically, if we look at what's going on now and I only have my life force to communicate this for now, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. If we're going to separate from a part of us, then a part of us is going to separate. So, I don't understand how we have, we're in a place where everybody's so smart, but everybody don't see that. Well, how smart could you be when everything is not, if it's not, it's literally physics is cyclical, like literally, it has to continue. It cannot just go like that. And so I find myself there, you know, you gas like yourself at a certain point where you're like, well, maybe it's something I don't get because how can anybody not see this and we we don't all help one another. Well, obviously we're, we're only as good as the worst, we're only doing it. So if you're not, if you're doing good, you think you really ain't doing that good if somebody else is doing really bad. You know, you know, I don't know why it doesn't. My grandfather would always say, he always would say, if everybody was the same, everybody would be chasing after your grandmother. Now, what do they mean? That means that's his baby, that we ain't the same, that's his chick. That's my girl. We ain't the same. Yeah. You know, when my, when my grandmother, I'll tell you what, what happens, when my grandfather had to have as long removed when he was 91, I was his favorite. If I box, he sent me articles, letters, that's when people wrote letters, like I was his number one dude. I got in the photography, he sent me his first camera. He's born in 1900, all right. He taught me different names of different cultures by watching football games. He made sure I was ready for all this, for his interview. I guess so. Okay. Yes. When we went to UCLA Medical Center, when he was getting ready to go into that operation, he was 91, his wife was 85, right? She walked in there to give him a kiss at A. Stop making out like teenagers. Oh, I guess. Let me get out of here. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So it all of a sudden made sense what he said to me, hey, everybody was the same, everybody judging off your grandma. And I used to say, why would they do that? Yeah. You see what I'm saying? So they're not. And that's okay. That's okay. Fact. Yeah. So the same in the sense that if you blow our water away, we ain't got none of the drink. If you blow our food away, we ain't got none of the eat. If you blow us away, you ain't got nobody else. Yeah. So the basic rules of the place, you know, were already made before we got here. We like little monkeys that can talk now, you know, you teach me the ABCs and then I can write and then I say, I don't believe in something bigger once you get all that in you, you know what I mean? But a beautiful part of what we are is something that we don't really realize. And it's good. Race is good. Because before we became organized societies and communities, we were just hunter-gatherers. And a group of us was on the side of a cliff and we saw another group of us that looked different. The girls said those guys look good over there. And the guy says those girls look good over there. And we ended up all these colors and it's for a good reason, you know. So all we have, all we have, you know, and all of none of this comes from what I know. It's everything that comes from this moment from what I've learned. Yes. Right? Yeah. We're all, you know, I'm here and so it's important for me to make sure that I try to pass on. It was a great question. It was the question for me of the day to pass on that love. And it don't seem corny to me. It ain't corny to me. It don't seem, I don't seem like I don't feel any way about it. I don't feel any way about what you love to do. I don't feel any way about who you are. I feel a way about us staying. I don't know if you've seen a plan of the apes, but I dug, my favorite character was Dr. Zeyes. Dr. Zeyes was the scientist that was responsible for the ape culture that took over the earth. Right? And he was hiding humans from us. You know, so finally, Charlton Heston, his character, flew into the, flew into the future. He thought this was really earth and he would have been taken over by a whole another culture of animal. Yeah. Right? Which was the apes. And he couldn't stand humans. He couldn't stand him. When they found out that Charlton Heston, when that scientist found out Charlton Heston could talk, he said, "We in trouble." Uh-oh. Don't step! Come into a room in the place! I liked it because he had a nice orange outfit. He had little sandals that had a little ape toe out and everything. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He had the turtle neck, the mock neck and all of them, like, "I think he's kind of cool." You know what I mean? And it wasn't until after the whole thing was done where he was, where Taylor had the gun on him. It's like, "I'm going to kill you. You know why are you keeping this from the apes?" And he said, "Because you're going to destroy us." You know? And so Charlton walked out of there, got on the porch with the white chick, rode off into the sunset and saw the stature of liberty leaning in the beach. Right. And he said, "You did it." You know, "Damn, you all to hell. You did it. You blew up her own place." Jamaica say, "You blew up the place." It's a place. You know? So I'm a little bit of everybody that's here. I'm a little bit of Jamaican. I'm a little bit French. I'm a little bit Polish. Come on, Polish, yeah. I'm a little bit all the things. You know, I am, you know, genetically what I am. Yeah. I'm a part of, um, I'm a part of this psychedelic movement. Yes. I'm a part of the hippies. That's right. I'm a mama and then we're hippies. That's so dope. I'm a part of that. I'm a group, one of those kids that grew up when ecology was hip. When you took care of environment, when love was hip, right? How do we get that? It was hip. We're there. We're there. We're there. It's so hip. We just got a negotiator pass. feel that we are there and then I also feel that something else is going on, but I'm following the wave of feeling that we're there. Yeah, but we just humans being now. We're just humans being, and we're still on our trajectory here. Yeah. We don't know what this planet is going to present in the future or whatever, but we're here. Yeah. And so, you know, we have human problems, you know, and every day we try to, we try to just do the best we can with it, and we got things that hold us together. Yeah. Love is one of them. Communication is another. You know, patience is another. Gratitude is another. Start to learn as you go. Tolerance is another. I didn't know these things before. I used to be mad at my mother. I'm like, why did you bring me to a ghetto in DC to grow up when you're white? Like, I got my got it, you know, you had choices. You made me like, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She she ended up she ended up. Yeah, man. Turn back. Yeah, man. And she ended up being, I ended up turning into her. You know who you kind of remind me of too when you're doing. Yeah, man. Sammy. Did you ever hear that? Where's your camera? Where's your, uh, where's your close-up camera? Yeah. I'm only looking at you with one thigh. You'll know what that means because he's yet to shine. And you guys are good hip to that later, but, uh, he was Puerto Rican. He was a Jew and Black. Guys. Everywhere he moved, he got thrown out. That's who you are. Hold on. I wanted to throw in the candy man with that. Okay. Anyway, and this isn't candy, babe. And this isn't candy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. By the way, I'm playing him finally in a movie that's coming to theaters this year. Oh my god. It took 24 years. What movie? Sammy is what it's called. Oh my gosh. I can not wait. You said that like I can not wait. It's spreading around you guys. You know, you're who good. Why are you Adam Sandler? I need right now. Oh my gosh. I love Adam. I mean, wait a minute. You got me thinking about what am I going to do? What am I going to do? I got with I got Boston. I got Markey Mark. I got Adam Sandler. I got I got I got slash. I got I got I got I got Chuck D. I got we got that. Oh my gosh. Look what we got. Questions. Look what we got. No, look what we got. Look what we got. Yeah. Yeah. 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So no more settling, no more close enough, visit Sephora to find your match. You know, you won the Apollo, you're this community, you know, this everybody knows you as this guy. But over the course of your career, it has that has your have your goals changed and then what comedy has meant to you. It affected me like Kansas, you know. Yeah. Carry on my way or so. I'm pleased to be where you are done. The city where we can't to race. Don't you cry? No more Kansas, Kansas, Dorothy is from Kansas. So she went from colors when she got knocked out to come back to her little black and white world and she was happy. Yeah, cuz home. Kansas again, John Brown, Kansas. That state didn't want to become a slavery state. So he decided I'm going to take that revolution on to myself. He took some slaves, got some guns, went down to Harper's Ferry. They walked. There was no airplanes. Went to get more guns and got killed along with his son and some slaves that joined him. So I did his song called Kid Zero, which is me. There's a painting of him coming out of the court where a slave woman, a black African slave woman had her child's kiss him on the cheek and under her were white kids, black kids and all kind of kids. Yeah. So I said, oh wait a minute, I'm kind of like kid zero. I'm kind of like one of the one of the black people that know that there's well-meaning whites in this country. And I catch black from that like Sammy Kiss Nixon and all the blacks jumped on him, you know what I mean? So I'm okay with that. What are we going to do? So when you ask me, Kansas, these are the only answers I have. You know, my brother who was white Michael Davidson, gay, didn't know until I was 20 something, right? He didn't know either. No, he didn't. But I didn't know. You didn't know. I used to call him a punk. You don't help me with these people who are jumping me all the time. You can't fight. You can't do nothing. But he brought me that album Kansas. He brought me Fleetwood Mac. He brought me Earth Wind and Fire. He gave me what he had. Yeah, man, and I didn't know he was keeping me out of street with those albums. Come on. So all that stuff is in me now. But what he did with his life was he was one of the first people to get AIDS. Wow. Willie, I'm sorry to hear that. So him and his friends in I think it's called Capitol Hill in Seattle where he had moved because he was dying. They went to Congress. Sorry. And they got the government to make AIDS a legal disease so that AIDS can be insured for it. You see? My mother turned her projects into co-op. Meaning? Meaning you own your own apartment. She's a work for the house and has for her for her. And that was her one of her greatest accomplishments. She did that. She also passed a law that community communities, the community collectives of a city cannot accept government funding unless each community says that's their budget's okay. You know, I found that out at her freaking funeral. These people around me. You know, like Dorothy came back and was finally like, okay, you know, we ain't got much money. But that show is my uncle over there. Why is that show is my auntie? It's true. It's real. Yeah, it's not so. So we're not, you know, was that some living in her own time? That's Philip Bailey. Yeah, we're living in all the time. - I got taught by art. I got taught by everything around me that got put into me. Oliver got put into me. I'm like, "Why are you gonna start with a little white boy?" - They have some old. - He's a London kid, yeah. Like give him some more old me, let anything that good. I had to surmise all these things in my, you know what I mean? - Yeah. - In my head. - I really understand you. - What was going on around me, you know, you take the head to the heart, you know, ancient Africans believe that hey, you know, the head was like a computer. - Yes, right? - Oh my gosh, yes, absolutely. - But if you store information. - Absolutely. - In order, in order, which was called an education? - Yes. - Then you can recapture that. - Absolutely. - Through feelings in the heart and have that come back to you. - You have an extraordinarily fast processor. I can only imagine how difficult over the course of your life, you know, to make you feel odd, but just going back to the story that you told about your mother at the table and people laughing because you are already at chapter 10 before somebody finishes their first sentence. - Right. - How have you managed that in your life? Obviously you've managed it through probably your craft, but your pattern recognition and your ability to, your math as an ontology is quite fast. How have you been able to move through life like that? - I'd observation, observation, you know, like we're not gonna know. We're not gonna really know, you know what I'm saying? But there are signs. - Yeah. - You see them saying there are signs, you know? - Medical recognition. - If you, if you coming on from a club and you've been drinking or whatever, and it's about five in the morning, and you're at a light, and somebody comes to the light, you know, on their way to work, or they got the little dog in the car, the dog's going somewhere on with you and I know it. (laughing) - You are not like the person that I'm next to right now. You don't have to go to work and I'm a dog. - Yo. - You know what I'm saying? - Like there's something under it. - Yeah. - There's something under it, man. - Yeah. - And it's the same thing under the sidewalk because it'll crack for grass. This substance that we created, that you can make a solid as a rock. - Yeah. - And the sun's way way up there. - Mm-hmm. - And the only way they can come up is that. - Yeah. - So something invisible said, "Hey, I'm moving that, come on. "Come on, you might be a tomato." - Yeah. - You might be a pear. You know, these little monkeys might want to eat that. - Right. - How often do you find that people think it's just jokes? And I'm asking, this is a double thing too, right? Because you obviously didn't live in color. It makes me think about your friendship with Jim Carey and how close you've said that you guys are. I feel like you guys are probably similar in this regard where it seems like people are looking at the monitor of the computer. They're looking at the output, what's externalized and the expression, but often not what's processing the output. - Well, he's black and I'm white, 'cause he's Canadian. That's a long story. - I love Canadians. - That's a long story. The War of 1812, just look at the documentary, you'll know what I'm talking about, you know. They all went, yeah, yeah, yeah. You'll know what I'm talking about. I'm like, they all what the Indians land what's going on. They're French and what I don't understand here. But it'll come to you. - How? - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We benefit from the Maple Leaf. We benefit from everything around us. The hardest part is you got to get the whole collective on the same page, and we're also different from all different backgrounds, and represented by all different types of people, that I got this from a movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, the one with Keanu Reeves, and Jaden and Jaden Smith. - Okay. - And at the end, you know, the alien comes here to make friends and say, hey, we're gonna shut you guys down, because you're one of the only, you're one of the only self-sustaining solar systems we have in the whole universe. So we're gonna take all the animals and stuff off of here, and then we're gonna kill ya. (laughs) You know, and they were doing it. And at the end, the woman and the survivors, finally we're able to talk to the alien, and a scientist who is hip to, you know, physics, all the stuff that we don't know about. - Yeah. - Like another wonderful Jew that got the, got the, Adam split, and they said, let's make a bomb, you know. Yeah. Simply, right? That's pretty simply but, right, right, right? If it wasn't for Sally and Abe at their deli in LA, I wouldn't be here, because they let me go to the comedy clubs when I worked at the deli. So every, every, every one of us is a part of the damn thing. - Yeah. - You know what I mean, but I forget what I was talking about. - Yeah. - So, so he says, so the, the alien says, well, that's it. This is, that was your last chance. - Mm-hmm. - And you haven't been able to do that. And he said, yeah, but at the precipice, we always find a way. And if right now for this country, this isn't the precipice, and I'm just a person, I'm just one of us, right? If we don't realize that we're the precipice now, then the rest is clearly evident. That's opinion. - Yeah. - It's clearly evident. - Yeah. - And I'm going from, I'm going from, from our practical means of, of global communication. - Mm-hmm. - You know, enough gotta be enough for somebody. - And I'm going from continuously what I've seen. - Yeah. - I'm going just from. - Mm-hmm. - I'm looking at patterns. - Yep. - You know, and if I'm looking at patterns, I'm, I don't want to say I'm scared, but I ain't excited. - Well, I ain't scared because, because, because, you know, I've seen it pretty clear. - Yeah. - You know, historically, and historically, you could tell a baby this, that it's never really worked that one small group of people run the whole place. - It doesn't, you know what I mean? - So let's go through, let's go through Rome. Let's go through, um, Germany, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Let's go through Pompeii, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Let's go through Egypt. - Yeah. - Two, almost 3,000 years of civilized culture. - Things have to come around. - And, you know, yeah, dad didn't seem to share or whatever. - Yeah. - You know, they're back there. - Yeah. - I'm not going from, from, I'm not going from an educated standpoint. - Sure. - Information this human being has taken in up to this point. - Observationally. - And I'm seeing it. - Yeah. - But, I'll say this, I'm powerless over it, you know what I mean? I'm just glad, you know, sometimes I don't know if I got to do number one or number two, I just go in the bathroom because I'm getting older now, and I don't know what's going to happen first. It's just practical, 'cause I don't wanna be doing that. I don't wanna be. - Right. - You know what I mean? - Yes, I know exactly what you mean, and it gets to the point where you can be in, and you can be in it, and then you just gotta be out of it, 'cause it's out of your control. - Hey man. - You know, it's like we could talk, we could get it, we could fund it, and then it's kinda like, I'ma let it do what it's gonna do, you know? - And take it how it is, you know? - Yeah, and take it how it is. That's how I think, that's how I have to deal with it too. You know, it's just taking it how it is, and knowing that I'm doing the best with what I can, like that Mariah Carey clip. I'm doing the best with what I got. - Right. So today, right? So me here today, let's check in, right? Like really wanted to be on the Upper West Side. I mean, I'm on the Upper East Side. I mean, the Midwick, I open the Murray Hill, I like. - Yeah, yeah. - In New York when I come out, I like to stay in Murray Hill. And I got mad at my wife a little bit, it's like, "Hey man, we should have got that, that, that, that." And the only reason why I was mad about that is because, I was freezing to death one, and my favorite Chinese restaurant, isn't there? - You want to just pop? - And then I was in my little spot. - We love a routine, you see what I'm saying? So, you know, you know, luckily Chinatown was there. You know, I ain't had nothing to do with that, but when I went out there, I was like, "I'm good, I'm good." I'm good. - Yeah. - I'm gonna give me duck chop chop chop. Well, they speak my language any old way, shut up here. You know, you know, they're like black folks. Shut up, I give you a minute. It's just like a white folks in Jackson, Mississippi, or somewhere like that. You want it or not. Either you're gonna have it or not, my man. You're just gonna get it, how you get it? You know, Americans are pretty fair. - Hey, when they talk, when they talk, they're pretty fair. This country is pretty fair. You know? Yeah, ladies, tell me, ladies, tell me this month, and no, we don't, so you're straight to my face. And I like some expression. She's, well, complimentary coffee is at the bar, and if you really want an expression, you got to go upstairs to the cafe. And I was like, "Okay, I'll do that." - I'm taking my ass up there. - I'm taking my ass up. - Yeah, and I sat there, I sat there like, at the bar, I was like, "I'm just gonna give me a plain old coffee." - Oh my God. - But then I saw the cafe, it was right there. - Yeah. - So I'd wait in line for a little bit, and none of this, that and the other thing, but I discovered that the dude that was giving it to me was from Mexico. - Yeah. - And we talked about that. And I said, "I'm from Mexico." He said, "Really?" I said, "Yeah, Los Angeles." And he said, "I've never been there." I'm like, "You got to go to Mexico." And you're missing out. - Oh. - Oh my gosh. - Yeah man, there's so much beauty around us. So much beauty and we're all covered up in it. - Yeah, yeah. - You remember the movie, Glory? - Oh my gosh, my parents made me watch that when I was a kid, I was pissed. - Okay, so you remember this scene? - Why the hell they made me watch that? - Because you remember this scene because the scene was really important, right? In this. So here's the Civil War, right? Here's the slave from 400 years of labor that ever chance to kick in, right? They don't get a chance to fight with their guns, right? - Okay, cool, right? - So, there's one of them who is a male slave that's been abused all his life, he's full of hate. He can't, you know what? And finally, he's accepted into the ranks as who he is. Matthew Brodrick is from abolitionist money, okay, right? Enjoy the play, Lincoln and all that stuff, right? - Yeah. - We don't like you because of this. The Irish, you know, we're part of the whole thing and kicked in their stuff even though they have here, you know what I mean? All right, they had Tamini Hall, long story, but they got their stuff, you know what I mean? We're kind of in Tamini Hall now, too. So here they are. Here's this cultured white boy that grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. That's the Colonel, right? And they're going to their suicide. - Yes. - Really? - Yes. - And I'm like, we're willing to sacrifice our lives for this fort. And the Matthew Brodrick character comes to the lowly, bitter slave. And he said, you know, he picked the conversation we meant. This house stinks, doesn't it? The slave said, oh yeah, see we're bad, too. And we all cover up in it, too. They go into the battle, him and Matthew end up dead on the flag. Now I go to military bases around the world for 35 years, okay? And one of the most wonderful things about our military is is that they promote by merit, not by sex, your orientation or color. So you know how many bases or subs I've been in where they said, you want to meet the sailor of the year and it's a little Filipino girl from Frisco, you know. - Hi Tommy. - You know, you know, I'm at a misal range in Iraq. And they say, and it's the radar system that governs that whole area. - Yeah. - Iraq's over there. No, I range over there, I Iraq's over here. Whatever it is, I get mixed up, right? But whatever it was, they said, you want to meet the main guy who runs these radar systems and it was a Dominican from Grand Concourse. - What the hell is Grand Concourse? - Up in the Bronx, where they shot New Jack City, where you can get a, you can get a join a weed and three new ports for $1. - And how does the sailor tie in? - It ties in that everybody that's protecting us is us. - It all becomes so crazy, don't you? - It's one thing. - But it is so, the irony is all so so, so so so. - You cut down, you cut down Cuba, you cut down Cuba, you cut down us. - But that's why, because that's why-- - You cut down Haiti, you cut down us, you cut down France, you cut down us. - I must say this. - And it's not, that's not partisan. I just learned that word from YouTube, actually. I said they said it enough, I mean, I think that means they do two different parties. I remember the party, Alice in Wonderland had, 'cause I liked the cat with that, you know what I mean? And the worm, 'cause they was chilling. But, but, but, you know, she got caught in the damn house and got too big for her, small for that. - People used those words. - What you do end up using, like, parties. - I haven't said parties into my life. What the hell is going on? - It gets like that. - Yeah. - It do, but, you know, it just becomes, this is why I don't think that comedy gets enough credit, like, meaning satire, because it's actually quite horrific. - Right. - Like, satire, when you really get down to comedy in that regard, it's so true that it's painful. Like, what you just said right now, it's so ironic, it's so ridiculous. - Right, right. - How we can be constantly fighting ourselves. - Right, right. - But confidently doing so. - Yeah, when our eyes are out. - It's a joke. - Yeah, when our eyes are outside, when somebody else's mind, I'd never, I'd never could get really the butcher. Well, you got blood on you all day. You know, I, you know, I'm not gonna, that, you want to do that. That's his thing. I was watching a documentary on the Gilded Age, you know, Teddy. - A Roosevelt, you know, in the Gilded Age. - No, I thought we was going to Pindergrin. - Yeah, yeah, no, I love him now. - You could have been any Teddy. - Close the door, you know what I'm saying? But, but they were showing the other Roosevelt who, came in his wife, were really staunch about reforms. So they talked about the meat, the, the meat industry. - What's down in the, well, the nice clubs are now. - Meat pack engines. - Yeah, yeah. Well, that's everywhere because you got to pack meat to eat, right? And whoever your city had them, Chicago and whatever. - Yeah. - So it was so poor and squalor, the rich were way up here that you could actually sell rotten meat to the poor. But when those reforms came around, you saw blacks and whites and all of them working in the butcher shops. - Mm. - See, so I, I wouldn't want to be a butcher, but I love being a comedian. So pick what you want. - Sure, pick what you can handle. - Pick what you want. But if we're gonna be the human race, right? I call it the human race for now, because we're racing, we're all racing for the earth's resources, for water, for oil, for money, for sex, for this, for that, is all the things we love that we live with, right? - Consumption. - But if we look at things from a man kind, - Yeah, yeah. - Stand point. - Yeah. - Then we're looking at our own kind. - Right. - But, you know, it can get a little bit, you know, you see a passenger bus in the head with a tear gas thing, you would think that everybody would say, okay, stop this now. - Yeah. - Stop it now. You know, and you sitting at home going, I wish they would stop this now, you know, but 24 hours in a day and blah, blah, blah, you know. So just, you know, we go a minute at a time where we are. And, you know, this vessel right here can tell you whatever it wants to, but that was the perfect question because, I guess that was what I was supposed to talk about today, you know? - And we talked about so much. I think people gonna be chewing up on this. People gonna be chewing up all this, because your mind is pretty, it's pretty incredible, Tommy. - It's not my own, you know, it's been influenced by a lot, but I'm glad that, look, listen, I was able to, there's a song that I have, I'm actually selling something, finally. There's a song that I have called "Mine Heart and Soul." No debars wrote it. His family is like all of ours. They got, this function, they got all the stuff, but they're here and they love each other, right? - Yes. - So I was able to take a Norman Rockwell painting and get the rights to be in the middle of it for this. And Norman Rockwell is one of the most famous paintings of Americana. On the front of Washington Post, when we were able to go to public schools, he put the little girl in the front of it. And then he has this one painting I never forgot when I was a kid, because I was always trying to fit in. So when I saw stuff like it attracted to me, - Yes. - So I wanted that to be a part of that. So the cover of this song "Mine and Soul" includes that painting and I'm in it. And Norman Rockwell is on my shoulder going, "Hmm, that's interesting." And I'm not the Tommy Davidson Davidson. I'm Tommy Davidson, Barbara Davidson's son. That's my legacy, you know? We gain understanding as we go. Well, thank you so much, Tommy. You were insane, incredible, amazing, and just fascinating. That's the best way I can put it. So fascinating. My ass over there. Thank you for coming on the show. I am so proud of your progression. And you have hung in there from the very, very, very, very, very beginning man. Proud family almost didn't happen. Oh my gosh! I'm so happy I got to be a part of it. You're a trajectory. This is a part of it. You got to platform. You know? Thanks. All right, you got to platform, man. That means a lot. It really, really does. Yeah, man, hey, man. Hello, hello. All right. Love you, girl. Love you. Wow. What I took away from that is that identity isn't something you like. can. It's something you live through. In every season, ask something different of you. But the goal is to stay rooted in who you are, even as you grow. So to everybody listening, let yourself change. Let yourself expand and don't question the version of you that you're becoming. I'll see you next time, because baby, this is Kiki Pong. Baby, this is Kiki. Baby, this is Kiki Pong, yeah.