Explicit

Best of Katt Williams

Published Feb 4, 2024, 11:08 PM

Katt Williams proved why he’s considered one of the comedy greats when he and Shannon sat down for an iconic conversation just one month ago. This special episode of Club Shay Shay brings together some of the best moments from Katt’s talk with Shannon. In this episode, Katt talks about: 

  • Steve Harvey
  • Kevin Hart
  • Cedric the Entertainer
  • Harvey Weinstein
  • Kanye West & Kim Kardashian
  • P. Diddy
  • Rickey Smiley
  • Michael Jackson
  • His Net Worth
  • Loaning the Migos money
  • Investing in Himself
  • Melba Moore’s Hollywood Star
  • Wanda Smith and the notorious radio incident
  • His wild childhood & start in comedy
  • Strippers
  • And more!

#Volume

And I needed you to know why I came by.

I need you to tell us why people know I don't go everywhere. I'm not interested in talking to people unless it's like a Larry King or somebody of an amazing ilk that I would actually want to go talk to in real life. Okay, I don't do it so I can sell product, and I got things to sell, so let me come talk. You have a great product here, and as a fan base, we love the attention that you spend on the guest. We love how much work you've done, how well you know them, how prepared you are, the same things that we liked about you in football, you brought that on over to here, and that's why it resonates. And the reason I had to come is because you've made a safe place for the truth to be told.

You know what I mean.

And I have watched all of these low brow comedians come here and disrespect you in your face and tell you straight up lies. I'm talking about things that have never been heard in all of Black Hollywood. They feel comfortable sitting here lying to you about it.

You gonna sit the record straight?

Are you kidding me? You let Ricky Smiley sit here and you said out that mouth.

You stole Friday after next, the one I was in. I wish all all of America fumbled. Event when that happened, And then he said some stuff that we hadn't heard in one hundred years in Hollywood, you ain't say nothing.

This man told you he had Kat Williams role. He was gonna be money Mike, and Kat Williams was gonna be f was gonna mean the Santa Claus. Now, let's three quick points. You mean in Hollywood they cast a five foot five black Santa Claus that weigh one hundred and forty five pounds. That's your story. Your story is the Ricky Smiley that couldn't even do curse words because he had a Christian fan base. He was gonna play the pimp. Why you didn't ask him? Why has he played a woman in more movies than he's played a man? Well, I didn't know. He shouldn't be able. You wouldn't let an athlete that been on steroids talk about one of the greats. Ricky Smiley can't act, Because Ricky Smiley can't act. He told you the story about when the movie came out. Where did he say he watched it at home. He wasn't even not the premiere. You telling this man, you stole that all so he could get his name in the same sentence with a great one. It is sad. He was just that bitter when we were shooting it. He told everybody it should have been my role, everybody on the scene. Why do you think no cast member has ever said anything?

He couldn't have played that role like you. I thought he was.

Sure no one? Why no, he was with KD. He beat up Terry crews. Why nobody know this story you're talking about? In Hollywood? They switched off rolls. You take this and he what so Ricky Smiley knows this? And I don't know why he would lose a child and come on the air start lying. That's why people believe in rituals, right there is because well why would he lie? I don't know why liars lie. But I can tell you this. We auditioned in Los Angeles. Yes, I was audition number two hundred and one, two hundred black comedians auditioned for the role of Money. Mike with me. You're saying all two hundred and one of us was auditioning and you had already had the role and had already shot the role in four days. The truth of the matter is the Money Mike in the original script got raped in the bathroom, and that's what Ricky Smiley was okay with. Kat Williams had to take the risk in front of the studios and the cast and the powers that be, And it's very first movie. As say, respectfully, humbly, guys, if we talk about anything else, I have no credibility and I have no pull. But we're talking about comedy where I have all the credibility and all the pool. The problem with Friday After Next is we're trying to make a classic comedy and this comedy involves a rape, and rape is never funny, no matter who it happens to or what the circumstances are. If you would allow me to allow us to do this movie without a black man getting raped in it, I promise you that it will be twice as funny as it would be with him getting raped. So, considering that's the real story, why would you bring up that story? Thirty five members of the cast and crew have never brought up that Ricky Smiley was gonna play Money Mike. No one ever saw him be put on a Santa Claus suit. We got a wardrobe department. They made a Santa Claus suit for me. Why that wasn't in the bloopers. And here's the other thing, everything that money Mike said, Kat Williams wrote, So what Ricky Smiley say on his you can't say my lines? I wrote him. That's how I already ready know that I'm gonna be funnier than you. What he told everybody was, Kat Williams, don't nobody know who he is. I'm on the radio, I'm with Steven said, everybody know me. That's what he told everybody that would listen to on the set. That's the truth of the matter. He was so egregious, not now then, he was so egregious that in Hollywood has never heard this in one hundred years. He was so egregious. I put in my contract that I won't work with Ricky Smiley again unless he's in a dress. Now, what was Ricky Smiley's next movie? Was it First Sunday? Did he wear a dress in it? You bet he did. It's in my contract.

Why would you put that in your in your contract?

Cat? That's where he's the unbelievable actor. Him and Tyler Plarry can't play a man, let's say their life. They played good women. And I believe that the best actor should be in the best role.

So that's why because when we released that clip and he said that, you responded because he said he was supposed to play money Mike and you were supposed to play Santa.

Claus in our right line, so that he knows is a.

Lie, So why would he say it.

Because he's a liar. Nobody knows why liars lie. And that's why I had to come on the program. Cedric did the same thing. Sedric told you when you asked him, did you steal Cat Williams joke? He said it don't line up, Howard, don't line up that I did it on TV in twenty eighteen. You came to see me at the Comedy Store do it in twenty nineteen, and then did it on The Kings of Comedy, Like what doesn't line up? This is a televiso that Mark Curry helped me punch up and get to the level that it was the same Steve that went to go watch Mark Curry do his whole sitcom and then stole everything Mark Curry had. Now Steve got a sitcom where he the principal and he wear a suit and he and then he gets this high top fade, making all black men think he got the best line up in the business. And it's a man unit. Then you asked it, why are you not a movie star? I didn't want to be a movie star, Just the same micro that hated on Bernie with this same thing. I didn't want to be a movie star. No, you couldn't be a movie star. There are thirty thousand new scripts in Hollywood every year. Not one of them asked for a country bumpkin black dude that can't talk good old bakaba and look like mister potato head.

There ain't none.

You would have to have range. I played a lot of characters, sixty movie roles. I'm not playing Cat Williams in there.

I don't know care. We might let you drink anymore the way you you. I mean, we ain't even got I'm not.

Fuel by alcol I've had a sip less than you. The truth don't need motivation. I'm just saying I can't let these dudes lie. Cedric sitting here telling you why he ain't a movie star. He already looked like a wal Risch. You didn't say nothing. He can't even get his arms off his stomach sitting on Why I'm not a movie's what?

It's a situation.

We never wrote anything.

Remember when Sedric the Entertainer starts, he's supposed to be singing, dancing and telling jokes. That's why he's called the entertainer. We found out he can't sing, can't dance, and doesn't like the jobbles. He did four comedy specials. They're so bad, Shanning, they're not available on Netflix or to B Can I say that again for the audience. They're so bad that they're not available on Netflix.

Or to be You don't think they have a good a good comedian.

The world doesn't think that, sir, I have twelve comed these specials. He has four specials that are not available on Netflix or TV.

It seems to me, Kat that you had a lot to get off your chest.

No, no, you wanted to say the Rector sty winners are not allowed to allow losers to rewrite history. I don't say any these things if my name is not breached by these people on your platform, that if you give them a liar a platform to lie. Then I'm not being messy by saying hold on that never happened. It's untrue, and there are hundreds of witnesses for each thing I'm saying.

So let me ask you this, what are your relationship with Steve Harvey, Ricky Smiley and said you did entertainer as you sit here currently.

They for thirty years. They're a group. These aren't three random guys. The way that Ricky Smiley kept appearing that all of my auditions is because of Steven saying he would tell anybody that listen, they got a gang on that side. They know what it is. They know who the gang is. Why earthquake not in movies because he's illiterate. He can't read, and they found that out when they gave him a show and put the cards in front of him. Like, all of these dudes are co entwined and they share secrets. And this is the age of truth, and the truth doesn't need to be scared of the fact that people tell lies. Cats on drugs, where are the stories? Why is there no story of anybody who ever sold a drug to me, did a drug with me, was around me when I was inebriated. I got five daughters, I got five sons. Why would we tell these ridiculous stories because it's competition. You feel like, well, why comedy guys can't just get along? Why didn't you get along with the other teams you were competing against? If you're a Denver Bronco or why you don't get along with the Cowboys? Something wrong with you?

But I don't disagree.

I don't know the cowboy.

Comedian?

Do you? Did you play against the team? Yes, I've taken forty six comedians with me on the road. Forty six. Okay, I'm not the comedian. You can give that to. I only put on comedians that are funnier than me. Anybody that ever told you differently was a fat Faison liar. There's nobody like me in the business. Faison said that getting a Netflix special is easy. I have twelve specials. Guess how many Faison got zero? Why is he allowed to have conversations about real stand up people. We do not let people who are on the juice discuss real athletes.

That's all.

As a journalist, that's all. That's all I'm saying. I don't have harbor any resentment to any of these entities because I can't be jealous. I've never seen them have anything that I ever wanted. If you sign up for their program, you get a light skinned, weird face wife that never do an interview. Listen, in twenty years, won't do an interview. Nobody's ever talked to her, and that she's never been interviewed anywhere. And now understand, I'm not talking about one person. When I just told you, applies to seven people. How they all end up with that, that's part of what you get. I came in this business saying I was gonna expose when I talked about Michael Jackson, when I talked about r Kelly. They canceled me for these things because why would you talk about another black dude. Race is not where the line is drawn. It's God's side and the other side, and we don't care nothing about the other side, period period. All of these big deviance is all catching hell in twenty twenty four.

It's up for all of them.

It don't matter if you Diddy or whoever you is, TGJS, any of them. Every all lies will be exposed, that's all. And anyone who takes that the wrong way know why they take it the wrong way. The truth is the light.

And you have no more these amen? Amen kind of getting on here right after that, I don't really kind of know where to go. Lit me one more time?

Right?

We good now? Because the people want to know why would he get black balled?

Yo?

Because because because in thirty years I've done nothing but collect information, knowledge, and you no secrets. So if you and a man was in a corner doing something you wasn't supposed to be doing, you tell it. No, somebody come to tell me, Okay, I gather that I value that, I'll pay for that. Come tell me.

I know so many things I shouldn't know, and they all know it. They all know it. Why because you don't.

Make me the villain, not the guy that raises black children and the ain't never done a hard drug in his life and don't have no stories of doing nobody dirty, And they'll just go out in their lie. The industry doesn't mess with Kat because he didn't show up for the studio. No studios have ever said that. Look at my IMDb. It will show you that no studio has ever lost money with me on the script. How That's why I'm saying, That's why I can't let Ricky Smiley say he was supposed to play Money Mike because I wrote the words for Money Mike. I designed the hair for Money Mike. I collaborated with the wardrobe department and made outfits to make sure that no no one in America would be wearing what Money Mike was wearing. I told him to go get the prowler. I then told him to paint it purple. I told him, don't have an actor at playing a pimp. We could get an actual pimp, Archbishop Magic don Juan to play like. I did far too much work for somebody to come years later and try to tag along just for their own self.

Agrandizement.

Why didn't Q set the reconstrate?

Terry Crews could have set the record strate, Mike Emms could have set the record strate?

Why none of them set the records?

Grat that's what you were supposed to ask him when he told you those lies that that one's right. But he's telling you something no one's ever heard of. Nobody has ever heard. Oh, Matt ben Affleck and Matt Damon was in a movie and somebody said y'all should switch rolls like this is a business.

But that's the thing can Normally, when people will give you information, I'm thinking I'm hearing it for the first time, and they're giving information no one else knows or I've ever heard, so I'm taking them face value.

These are a lot. This is like Steve Harvey telling people he used to be homeless. That's my story, that's not his story. Steve Harvey wasn't never homeless. When Mark Curry was touring with him twenty five years ago. He was making three thousand dollars a show in cash and doing five shows a week. They just tell the stories. My thanks to my wife, I'm where I am. You said that about the first wife. You forget that you told us it was her, then you went and married somebody else that think like a man, like what are you talking about? They just they think they can rewrite history. That guy Tori did a beautiful special about the Comedy Store in Fat Tuesday, where he said that Steve and Cedric and Kevin Hart and Tiffany hadih came through there and made all lies. Steven Cedric never performed at the Comedy Store at all. Tiffany was only seen at the Lab Factory in fifteen years in Hollywood, no one in Hollywood has a memory of going to sold out Kevin Hart show there being a line for him ever getting a standing ovation at any comedy club. He already had his deals when he got here. Have we heard of a comedian that came to LA and in his first year in LA he had his own sitcom on network television and had his own movie called Soul Plane that he was leading. No, we've never heard of that before that person or since that person. What do you think a plant is? Maybe people don't understand the definitions of these words. He just did his documentary with Chris Rock where he shows you that his whole upbringing in comedy was on the East Coast. So how simultaneously was he here in Los Angeles doing the same thing.

It didn't happen. It didn't happen.

And I hate to seem like a petty individual for picking apart lies, but Jesse Smowlegna, keep lying until you say we don't believe you, like it's important in the checks and balances of the universe that liars not get to make complete narratives for themselves.

Are you not afraid about being blackballed? Again? These are some power people.

Do you mean again, these people are not powerful. Satan can't create anything that includes blessings for his people.

That's why.

You know what the number one job of somebody that saw their soul in Hollywood is. It is to act like it didn't happen. They all do the same job. Why do you think Gary Owen can't cross over? And he already white and been in comedy for twenty five years. If what I say ain't the case, it's a cabal, it's a consortium. They rock with who they rock with, and they don't with who they don't. But I'm not scared of being the competition anymore than you were when you lined up across from a superior team. Yeah, on paper, they're a better team. They have all the assets and resources that we don't. But let us get on the line, boy boy, and see if that factors in. I guarantee you it won't wow. Because Shannon Sharp got to be a different person than that other person, and he always was. That doesn't change when I change teams. That remains the same. That's how a legacy is built. So all of these shortcut takers I was, they've canceled me for talking about Harvey Weinstein before the thing came out, but he offered to suck my penis in front of all my people at my agency. What am I supposed to do? He did all of that. I'm thinking, I'm the only black person on the script. I get there, it's three other black guys on there.

Whoa huh?

I told him, no, what y'all do? And this is why when I walk in the room, heads go down behind my I'm nothing. I'm just a regular old comedian. That's better in jealous but in my face. No, no, no, the king has walked in and they have to respect it. Only because I'm not taken the shortcuts. I've not been funded. They pay you to not talk about things they don't want you to talk about. They tell you that themselves. I can't do that. Because Steve told you that he stopped doing stand up because he has seven TV shows. The only problem is where he stopped stand up. He didn't have those seven TV shows. He stopped stand up because he got in a comedy battle called the Championship of Stand Up Comedy with one Cat Williams in Detroit in front of ten thousand people and lost because Cat Williams said he was actually bald and that was a wig and I went in and that's why he couldn't do stand up anymore. Imagine him coming to tell you another story where he got so big and it was burning them's fault because they wanted to be movie stars. What you called ocean eleven to get that Nigga's part? What do you mean you didn't want to be a movie star? So on the behalf of Bernie, I would have to say what I have to say?

Have you ever been on tour with any of these guys?

Every guy I mentioned to you is not funny out there in real life. No, No, Faison's never done his own tour in thirty years. Steve Harvey don't do stand up no more. Cedric doesn't write. I'm sorry he doesn't write. Ricky Smiley has been playing the same old black woman forever, like you can't get a young fan base with that, Like you gotta be doing karaoke around the country to make that work. And he is. But I'm a stand up comedian. This is my nineteenth one hundred city tour. I'm not gonna have a conversation with these lazy bums that will take a shortcut at any point. Yes, it's easier for you to juice than to get in the gym. But you don't get to bring that body in the here talking.

Crazy about how good you look. What.

No, no, there's too many comics out there that are put in their life on the line to tell these jokes.

Man, Okay, let's get to your upbringing. We're gonna circle back and we just I want.

To protect them real quick.

Because you had said for the Kings of Comedy, it was in twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, But did you mean nineteen ninety nine, because it came out in two thousands.

I just want to make no, no, no.

So what I meant to say was, remember he said I couldn't do stand up anymore. I had seven TV shows. I said, he didn't have any of those TV shows at the time. Okay, nte, But it came out in two thousand. So I just want to make sure, okay, no, no, no, no no, what comes out in.

Two thousand, the original Kings of Comedy?

Right my, I'm on BET's Comic View and they're using this as the commercial in nineteen ninety eight. That's why I'm saying, yeah, so if I yeah, so, if I said the date's wrong. Yeah, so let's go clear though.

Okay, you said, yeah, I had Cedric on here and I asked him about the joke stealing, and he said the timeline doesn't add up.

Correct to your to that point, you say, right.

So he thought that I was just a no name comedian and that he could take this joke and nobody would know. The issue was that I had already done this particular joke on BT's Comic View twice. It had done so well on BT's Comic View that they had made it part of the commercial. So part of the commercial of make Sure you tune in the BT was you seeing me doing this joke. And this joke is one of those jokes in comedy where you set it up and it takes a little longer to set it up, takes about three minutes, but then you're just hitting them with jokes after that because you don't have to set it up. Mark Curry had already helped me work on this joke because I thought it was good, because I was getting a standing ovation on it. He had me go back in the lab and helped me craft it to be an even more powerful joke. So this is not just a random joke. This is my very best joke, and it's my last joke, and it's my closing joke. Okay, nineteen ninety eight, I'm doing this joke. It's on Comic View. Cedric comes to the comedy store, He watches me in the audience, He comes backstage, he tells me what a great job I did and how much he loves the joke. Two years later, he's doing that as his last joke on the Kings of Comedy, and he's doing it verbatim. He's just changed my car into a spaceship. Him and Steve had already apologized for me. So I gave him a pass for a decade. Why would you sit here and be like I talked to I saw cat thirty times. The cat didn't do as I stand before you, Shannon, I would a bust Cedric's stomach. There was nothing that would have kept me from one of these in that patch right there, Like, are you kidding me? Why would you downplay me like that? Why did I give you a pass if you were just gonna lie? And so that's what I'm saying, Like they're all a group, Cedric, Steve, Ricky, They've been a group. Everybody knows that they've been aligned, and there are these alliances in comedy, and if you stand against them, then they sometimes have a problem. But we don't let that change the content, because that's all you know me for is that I'm quite likely to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

So help me God.

Like all my enemies all look the same in the eyes, whether it's faise On Wanda Aria Spears, they all look.

Like And what you got to get sight? You think.

I don't rumor that Sir Wander Sights and Wanda Smith are two separate people. I had only one name, Sir.

Wonder Sights amazing.

I love Wanda and I agree, I.

Love wad That's my girl.

But I remember on the radio, you went on a radio interview, if I'm not mistake, that's in Atlanta, right, and you came on there with seemingly good intention and she attacked you.

It wasn't just that part.

It was the fact that before I go in there, she has a conversation about Okay, now, I just want to talk to you because you just wanted Emmy for the city of Atlanta, and this isn't Atlanta, and they just want to hear about the Emmy and hear from you, and to thank you for what you did putting the city on. And we won't talk talk about your kids, we won't talk about jail, no cases, we ain't gonna talk about none of that. And immediately gets in there and goes the opposite way. You can't flip up on me because you're an inferior comedian. I'm going to destroy you, and I'm never gonna call you out of your name. I'm never gonna say anything disrespectful the people that look like you. It's a very thin line. I got a call, but this lady is trying to embarrass me in front of a largely homosexual fan base. That's why she got canceled. Gay people don't take it kindly that you would as a derogatory call me gay. Gay people don't feel like it's derogatory. So why are you trying to shame me with something in the community I don't even belong in. There's no gay people saying I belong over there or been over there. But I have no hatred of over there. And how dare you.

You did though, Hey, you did a numb on that's legendary.

No believe in carma or you don't, because I didn't even know any of the stuff that she had done to my fellow comedians until afterwards. I just know she that it was a setup. Right, And remember they they tried to kill me this same weekend, not in jokes, with a real gun, in my real face, on real camera. Understand, I'm losing my life for participating in something that goes along with my job like this, two comedians, what do you mean? And the world was okay with it because it was me. Had that happened to anyone else, the world went crazy when Will Smack smacked Chris.

This is a person pulling a.

Whole gun on a comedian in the confines of their job. It's really a weird situation when they hate you that bad.

Yeah, yeah, you felt she hated you at that moment because you mentioned that she said he was going to be very professional. All you want to enmy congratulations, You put the city on you own for the city, YadA, YadA, YadA.

And now did she mention anything about the Emmy on camera?

I believe you saw the video and you know that none of that took place. See that. The issue is that all the comedians have to come do these radio stations because you have to sell your tickets, and so that means you have to go to the radio. Yes, I don't go to the radio station, and I don't make posts to sell tickets.

I just don't. So you've not seen me.

I haven't. I'm not here in some subservient positions where somebody sent me over.

You hear out of the countis of your heart?

You are no, no, I'm saying, but in the interview, yes, yes, situations yeah sure, yeah, and this person knew I wasn't the for that or yeah.

But how hard because you have to understand she is a female and so you have to be careful.

You have to handle her with kid gloves.

Sir, sir, you want to go ahead and take that out. You don't want to be against equality, dude. What you just said was very unequal, sir, But you think maybe you've had enough.

For this.

Because I think I just heard you saying, but tell you that women are not equal and should be treated unequally. They want to be treated me as a comedian.

No, no, they want listen, you understand, and I understand in certain situations they want to be treated equal not all situations.

And and what part of what you saw her get what part would have been different? If she was a man, it would have just been more.

That's my point.

I took all the vicious and bent them a wigh because I didn't have any. Plus, I understood, I'm not trying to offend black women with short hair. I'm not trying to offend heavyset women. I'm not trying to upset fellow comedians. I'm not trying to do any of that, and I can't. I am qualified to be able to do none of that and still eviscerate you because I'm smart enough to know that I need to say that you have gnarled fingers, because I know your limited education means you don't know what the word means, so you can't possibly respond to it. You're not sure of the meaning. And I'm going to continue hitting you because this is what comedians do. You've been masquerating that you're a comedian too, and that's the fallacy. Nobody in boxing fights out of their weight class. If you're a one hundred and thirty pounder, you don't just show up with the one sixty pounders.

Stay in your weight class.

Is that what you wanted to do? That she was out of her league when it came to because I.

Didn't want to do any of it.

I know you didn't want it to do it, but what she took it there? Did you feel that you had to go there? Oh?

You could have say, Wanda, I didn't come here for that. I just want to do the interview. I just want to talk about what happened.

Oh, you misunderstand my job. My job is to be funny. Haha. My job is to be funny first. My first job is to be funny. My second job is to be respectful. My third job is to be immaculate and gaza strip it. Uh, that's non political. I'm saying. If you do it, you let a terrorist accidentally touch over here, and I won't stop burning you down until there ain't nothing left. It'll literally be rubble on top of rubble and I'll still be bombing. Why, Because that's why you should mind your business. This is what f around and find out it's about.

Right now, I'm reading.

Cat Williams won Entertainers and How's a Bush? The Best Los Angeles Comic Award? Did you win that?

Award?

Won? Cat Williams. It's a simple yes or no. It's not a rhetorical question.

It's a question that probably should have been asked to entertainer. I'm asking you, I got you here, though I know I couldn't believe Center didn't get asked that question. You still a.

Dude's joking to give him a reward and then tell him laying you don't know nothing about it.

Hey, but I promise you this, What if he sees me again before he sees you, he'll be talking different when you see it. That's for certain. That's the difference. That's what these comics understand is that I'm not doing nothing for Cloud. I don't even recognize Cloud. But eventually the Lord is gonna let me and you be in one hallway.

A lot of these dudes go.

Kevin Harden went twenty five years without ever being in the same building with me at the same time.

If I go in the building, he walk out.

You've never seen us in the same building ever in twenty five years.

Like it's like that.

Why Why? Because I'm really the product. It's not what you think. I am never under the influence of anything. I'm always in my right mind. I'm always a physical specimen. And when you see me, I'm much much bigger than you had thought. I have far less play in me than you would like. And I'm relentless. I'm out there. I'm still to this day, I play eleven games of basketball with a twenty year old. The record is ninety two and six. This is just in New York. Just to the rack.

Just because you work out, can yah? I mean no, you work out.

Can't not to the gym.

You don't work out the gym. You push up sit ups.

My whole life it was, it was just push ups and setups only. I would do like.

One hundred push ups a day.

Just I thought you was gonna say a thousand.

No, no, no, because this is literally every day. This is not for the yeah, for the gram, you know what I mean, like literally one hundred a day. And I would do push ups and then I tore both my rotator cuffs and so it was only thanks to golf that I was even able to get mine. I've been a golfer for quite some time. My shore game is impeccable. I can't get you, but but too and some change off of the tee, off the tee. But I'm still I'm I'm still coming in for par guaranteed.

Are you playing for the tips?

No, I've found that you don't get anything for that. It seems like this seems very ego monologal. They go, hey, cat for free, you can go further back there. Why wait, minut does it still counsel sing, Hey, I'm up at the Ladies State, don't tell me my pronounce on the golf course? She him?

Damn man, they whoever, whoever at the front.

Team We're I know, we're joking. We're having great conversation. But you did win the award. How did the ward help your career? It had to him some cat.

Nope, No, I didn't remember it happened to you just said it set. How can Sedri give you an award that would work something? Everything Sedric and Ricky Smiley ever been in got canceled for not being funny. Ricky Sahir told you that they cut him out of every movie he did. They always had a reason. That's why I'm funny, because I'm a happy person. I laugh all day long. I can't even imagine the misery of these bumps. Just to not be good at what you do, not work hard, at what you do, but have to like you the best at what you do. It is crazy, it's great.

But they be touring, they be doing like a hundred shows a year.

That's me. I don't run into none of them. That's what I'm saying. If you a phase our love fan, you mean you've been a fan of him for thirty two years. You still waiting on him to do his first special? You mean to tell me if Steve Harry your favorite comedy, you mean you've been waiting for him to do stand up for fifteen years now?

I mean, Steve got a lot of D d L still out there.

None of those irons matter to stand up? Who cares that they wrote a black card for you to do? Family feud on like you're you're successful, because we're surprised you can talk for a living, and it's entertaining that you're gonna say some funny country things.

But not a writer, right, not a writer.

Now. I've had to turn down fifty million dollars four times, four times just to protect my integrity and that virgin hole I was telling you about it, right, because he didny be wanting a party and you gotta tell him no, you got to tell him, no, I did. I did. See. I got the receipts for everything. I'm telling you. That's why I'm here get your thank you because early on you was accusing me.

Then I can't.

Man, it's crazy.

When you got in to stand up, was crossing over, was doing TV? Was doing movie?

Was that?

Was that a part of it? You're like, okay, I'm gona, I'm doing stand up. Okay, next next, the next progression is.

T movies throughout throughout the history of stand up, sir.

That's that's the goal for all of us.

That's how it goes. That's why when you hear these dudes talking about, oh, I didn't want to be a movie star, you just know it's disingenuous, like we talking about dude. Yeah old, no, Now, I just wanted to do a game.

Show, right, What.

You sure? Are you sure? Cause? I thought you did Mark Curry's show over after he had just done Hanging with mister Cooper. Why would you do all of that man stuff that he did on his show on yours and didn't do the dude stand up When you go on the road.

And then you never put Mark Curry on your show or nothing like if you don't say anything, these dudes will run over you.

I don't know if you know how bullies operate. If you don't stand up for yourself, there really is nothing they won't do.

Right.

You're a very generous man, cat you You were the sole sponsor of Melburne Moore getting star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. You did all that on your own. Why what do you have a personal relationship with Melbourne?

No? No, I understood that she was a black woman in a time where it mattered what you look like, and they had a certain thing that they needed you to look like and act like in order to be successful. And she just never did that. She wasn't tall enough, she wasn't fine. They didn't like her look, they didn't like that her hair was natural. They talked crazy about her, and yet she still made all of these achievements. And I'm like, understand, I'm already in the Comedy Hall of Fame. I'm already going to heaven no matter what happens, if it ends in a second, I'm up there. So give me the leadway to do some things that are simply because it's the right thing to do. So the truth of the matter, is they wanted to give me a star, but please don't consider me. And this person been sitting on this list this whole time, and just because they ain't got enough money they can't get they just do. That's crazy. When do you start? That's hurtful. What if somebody can't afford their flowers? You mean they don't get them? No, God, Tom operate like that. He was sending a dummy like me to come and take care of that, just so that the right thing happens.

That's how the universe work.

Because remember, I don't what I'm spending my money on. I'm not spending my money on strippers. I ain't spending them on drugs. Like what? Because if I go on, if I go in to strip club, I'm only trying to get her out of there. I have no intention of her or any other people being in this position. If I see a girl I like, get the strip club. I'm telling it. You know you don't have to strip no more after this?

This could be your last day.

How about that? What would it be like just to leave it all?

You ain't gotta be a don't no more.

I don't even want you to go get your first leave it and we get a new I D, we get a new ID in credit.

Social Security card.

We don't need none of that. This life don't look good on you. You don't even look like a drug. Got here these athletes talking about Yeah, we was out there tricking. What why? You're part of the problem. You're part of the problem. Stop paying people that you don't have no respect for. It sets it up bad for us. We got women out here can't find a man because they're acting like him. You an outpa. Now, the our alphas all want these subservient husbands.

You can't have one.

It ain't gonna happen. Sorry about that. Okay, go ahead, boy, you done got me canceled? How many times in this program? Where's the camera? I didn't write nothing, I said tonight. It's all been on these Q cards and keep reading. Ask your next questions?

Do you have them? Get out of financial situation?

I don't think we ever as a nation, can remember a time that the Amigos were financially unsuccessful. So for the record, I would assume that they've never needed Kat William's financial assistance for anything. I'm sure that between QC, the label, and other things, they were taken care of. On the other hand, if I was given the opportunity to help them what I of course I would. That's what I do. I'm I'm a pro black, non racist, Like I really really love black people, but I don't love them more than other people. I love everybody. I just I'm a black guy, and I try to stick with that. But yeah, I'm not one of those pillow talkers either, Like when I do something good, I'm really not doing it for the ground it's it's not for it's not for any of that. I'm just doing it because it's good to do.

I appreciate that I read.

I don't know if this is true, but I did read that comedians on your show say that women sometimes would bring them money and not say where it came from. Say that again, comedians would say women would bring them money and not say where it came from.

Right. So, I'm not a feminist like a feminist would be. But I do believe that there are no there that in my camp, Like if I had thirty five people in my camp, right, I believe that other than four jobs, I believe that a woman is better at any of them jobs than any man could be. So ten of these jobs, no man can work because I'd rather a female be there. If I got to smell anybody's breath, I want it to be hers. I don't want none of you, Krusty. So what I'm saying is, in a staffing issue, I'm gonna have seventy five percent women just because I prefer them. I don't prefer to hear two guys talking in the corner. I prefer to hear two ladies talking in the corner. I don't care what they're talking about. I just prefer that. So a lot of times I will utilize ladies to convey a message. If a comedian is doing a great job somewhere in the country, he just did a masterful set, and nobody's gonna pay him. They just clapping me, and I know he's broke as shit back there. Wouldn't it be nice if somebody just showed up and gave him a little blessing and he didn't have to suck me off for it, and thanks kat, this boy, I really needed it. Why would you do that? If you was actually just trying to help people, you would people know That's how I paid my ties. If I got paid one hundred thousand dollars to be at your city. I'm gonna take ten thousand of that and put it in your homeless area now, because I got to cause you gave me a hundred racks to come to your little RinkyDink town. Who would I be to not pay my times back to your town? That's how I got in this position.

Wow, you adopted seven kids. Why, that's a lot of kids for a man that's as busy as you are, travels as much as you do on the road, as much as you are, spend a lot of time because you have to spend a lot. I mean, it's not easy. I mean maybe it comes just so comes so natural to you to put pen the paper and to write things down and be able to go out there and perform a set.

But that's a lot of responsibility.

Cat, right, right, But if there was a god, what would he think about you if you did that? I'm saying, let's just let's say, for example, okay, that God is real, yes, okay, and let's say he'd be looking at what you do. Yes, Well, what he say if you did that?

He said that?

Cat, that's that's a very that's a very kind gesture.

That's very jealous of you.

My whole life. Since I was telling you when I was young and they was asking me what I wanted to be, and nothing I wanted to be as I wanted to be God's friend. That's a weird thing. If you ate this, if you ate this, I didn't even say nothing. But if you believe in God and I tell you that I wanted to be God's friend and I wanted to even go to Hollywood and still be God's friend, if I told you that that was my aim, you can understand where I'm at. Like I promise you no jealousy, no bitterness, or none of that. I got exactly what I was trying to get. I haven't been shortened in any way.

I mean, seven eight kids single, you're gonna get married.

You remember the conversation where I was where it was me, yes, and I didn't know what was gonna happen to my two little brothers, and it was just gonna be out there.

Yes.

So when it gone full circle and I'm one of those, I'm one of the richest men that ever lived. And don't don't I don't mean please don't look at my net worth. I saw my net worth. I had that on me.

I won of God.

What I'm saying is like I'm saying, my network is less than my last Netflix. There, you understand what I'm telling makes sense. But I'm fine. Jesus was poor. Jesus had nothing, So why don't we be mad? You say I don't have nothing?

They had the minutes they have back then. Okay again, we got different minutes now, not.

More than gold. Gold was the amenity of that time. We still got gold. The coldstill run it.

They they gotta you could buy, you can buy ass.

That's what they call it. The biblical time. They were cheap.

I'm saying, if you really ones say, I'm saying, a color now is cheap. So back in the day, I would get my girl a donkey. Today would get her a color now. But I'm saying whoever, I'm saying whoever and whatever it is I'm saying, I'm saying, because what we gonna do. I don I already told you I'm want of the richest people that ever lived, only in the fact that when I wake up in the morning, no matter where I am, I don't need nothing. Whatever I need is right around me, and whatever I don't have, it's only just because I don't have it. It's not because I can't get it. All I gotta do is want it and it belongs to me. So because of that, because I'm favored by God. Like when I see people's wives and stuff, I don't even look at them, you know what I mean, Like, I don't want to look at nothing I don't want to have because I know how blessed I am. If I look at it, I got it. That's how did he be feeling.

So you're not supposed to look at anything that.

You don't want, not me personally, just because God has given me literally everything I ever even pump faked like I want. And that's the whole thing. That's that's the whole thing is I don't I don't have a type of woman. Every woman that I ever had as a type, I ended up getting her.

Now she's not the type anymore.

Now I understand that every woman is a one of one, Like you can't really have types. M what Because you see how you trying to ask you about marriage? Yeah you did. When you rewind the table, you let it out. You was like, so you ever gonna get married? And then you took it back. It's Okay, it's okay. I wasn't as a philographic memory, are you. I'm not against it. Like most people that are not married, it's because they're afraid of commitment.

It's not that like that.

For me.

It's just the whole time I wanted to be married, I I had kids, so I had to try to fill my wife's place before she got there. So I've already got kids without a mother. But so now I gotta be doing laundry, I'm washing dishes, I'm reading stories, I'm having a nurture. I'm having to do all of this. And I got to the point where I didn't need the wife. I'm doing it and we're doing it, and I'm not replacing a woman in their lives. I'm letting them see that that's just the only.

Thing that we don't have.

And it was easier for me to do that because you have to understand that all of the kids I'm raising at this point, they have fathers. You see, they have a mother.

You see.

I'm a different person I'm raising you, and so that needs to be done with the other respect for the others that put work in as well. So, yeah, I never had a problem getting married.

What's one of the one things you try to teach your kids.

I don't teach anybody anything that's over eighteen. I've done the work I was going to do. But as kids, I really just tried to teach the things that can be bought, your integrity, trying to live your life in a way that you yourself could be proud of if you had to look back on it. And I didn't do very good at leading by example, but behind the scenes, I was that's never what I was pushing. They understood that because of my stance, there was a certain thing that would come my way, and so accountability and responsibility is part of what you're teaching, is that you know, even if you're doing the greatest thing in the world, there's this thing called no good deed, Gods unpunished, Like there's a real Murphy's law. Like basically, in raising kids, you're just trying to give them a better manual and an outline of how life works. Then your parents gave you, you know, and so that's how I did it.

What do you think about Kanye rant? What's going on with Kanye?

From a distance, obviously I don't know how well you know Kanye I don't know if you've been around Kanye, but from a distance, what do you suspects going on?

I suspect that we're pretty awful people. If we say that somebody got a mental illness and then we watch what they do. If you say somebody got special needs, then why would you be watching them and holding them accountable like everybody else? Wouldn't you grade them on a curve when you go who this guy? Because I mean, what are we reacting to? What are we're reacting to? You're the one that put him in a position where he thought he was God and could call himself yeasels? And you're the one told the guy that writes musical lyrics that he was a genius. You're the one that's like, so what do you expect? The guy married a whore like I didn't mean it like that, I mean married her because she was one. Now, he didn't know, he understood that, he wanted that, he corded that that's what he wanted. The basis, I.

Know what you're gonna say, don't you say a cat? Don't you say it?

What I'm saying is not correct? How does she end up with Pete Davidson?

I mean the half of Voltata.

And what if you weren't even good enough for Pete and he leaves, you would do that? Mean the product was No. I don't support or villainize Kanye because I don't understand what it is we want from him. I don't know why we look at a basketball player and say he didn't score no hockey goals this whole season. He don't play hockey. Kanye, don't say nothing. I can't agree with Okay. I he was the weird guy in the beginning with the pink sweaters when we met him, like, what do you think moving to a beat of your own? Drop this? This dude started a church and kept cussing. Nobody in black church said nothing. You would have thought all the pastors would have came up. You can't be no gospel artists. You just said, fuck that bitch. Nobody said nothing because J's over there with being in it. Only the guy you had here has been upfront and honest and a man of God and humble and took the l's he had to take and didn't.

I did see it was trending, though, But I ain't. No, I don't, I don't. I ain't no way I care. I don't let me go to this question.

All people that love the truth gotta be happy if the truth coming out and livees is getting exposed, that's just what time it is.

Four folks, do you consider yourself a king of comedy?

They consider that like like when after Bernie left them, same three guys. I'm telling you about the kings. Yeah, right, because d L is the greatest. The no d L slander gets tolerated. But they came to me. I was supposed to be the fourth king. I got the offer.

What about I.

Turned it down? Why because you shit on Bernie and I know the truth.

You think I'm you shit on Bernie and then come get me, I'm the next king?

Fuck you? Why because the whole time Bernie was here, you was acting like you was funnier than him. The reason you were supposed to go last is because it was your tour. Tell the truth. It was Steam's tour. Now it was gonna be called the King's Comedy. Was Steam's tour. These are the guys opening for him. Of course you got a close if it's your tour, that's why it was such a big deal. But you couldn't do it because you can't beat the best. And until you humble on yourself, you will forever be kinged by the king. And because you finally did it, because you didn't have no other choice. And now that he gone, you go ahead like he wanted to be a movie star. You stop it, You stop it. That man was funnier than all of y'all, and y'all thought y'all had one over on him. You thought he was black and ugly and you were good looking it. He couldn't make it cause you did, And that ain't the way comedy worked. Is the funniest period, every time. And that's why no audience member was ever swayed. It didn't matter where Bernie went. You think if Bernie went first, he wasn't the king. Get out of here, Get out of here, Get your ego out of this.

You let the best be the best, right.

Can't wait?

You ladies and gentlemen, Thanks for coming on, bro, I really appreciate that. Thanks for sharing them. Thank you the stories setting the record straight. Now you know they're gonna double back.

Impossible. Impossible only because if once you play this back, you'll realize I didn't say anything that made me look in a good light. I wasn't tearing down others to boost myself up, but I do have to acknowledge things that did not take place. Like we're very ingenuous if we say this is not a game and we don't play it, and people ain't in positions, and people don't have their favorites, and they group and they clicking. But that happens at all businesses.

No, no, say.

What side you on, Say why you don't like the other side, and then get to the game. But in the game, I'm wiping the field with him to the point where they don't even compete anymore. So how you gonna let a dude that have been on the bench for fifteen years I would have beat Jordan's ass. Shut up. Jordan is still alive. We're called Jordan right now.

You can't meet him now, not then, you can't meet him now.

Let's get to your upbringing.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, raised in Dayton, Ohio.

What was Cat Williams's upbringing?

Like your parents with Jehova Awitness, you were a prodigy, You were brilliant. You talk to me that you got accepted the college at seven years of age.

You can read fluently at three years of age.

So having that kind of knowledge, having that kind of of of prodigy or so what was so I mean with it?

What was your upbringing? How? How was it? How was life as kat Williams crunk coming up?

I I I was often confused because I knew things and I wasn't sure how I knew them. I knew things that I felt like, I don't have a reason that I k I know this, But I I loved to read. I was voracious because they told me when I was young that knowledge was powerful. Uh, that knowledge was power, and I had studied powerful people, and I I really believe that. I I immediately my next project was to read the whole encyclopedia set. So when you're like six seven years old, you read the whole encyclopedia set, you think you one of the smartest people in the world, only to get out in the world and find out you don't know anything. You know. So it was a confusing time. But yeah, I had a childhood. I was grown. But I at five years old, I was in front of five ten thousand people, given a performance with a full suit and tie on, you know what I mean? So it hasn't it had it came full circle for my life.

I knew that.

The applause and the giving of information and laughs and truth to people somehow benefited them and also benefited you. And yeah, so when they would ask me what I wanted to be, everything that I would say that I wanted to be was something that didn't exist, and they would never give me credit for it because I needed to say a doctor or a lawyer.

But that's not what I wanted to be.

So your parents weren't as supportive as you would have hoped because you were wanting to be things when you got older that they had no knowledge of or it didn't exist at the time.

No, it wasn't that. It was I'm saying, I'm I'm almost one hundred years old right now. But if we go outside right now, I can run a four three forty or sub I can do a four to one six.

Jimmy John's crossed the street. We can order a sub But oh, you've been on the submarine.

That what you saw, so so back then it was even greater. So you got this guy that all the coaches.

Want to I don't do that.

Hold on because I'm I'm.

Five 't five in the fifth grade. I've been this high as my whole life. Like there was a portion of school where I was one of the big dudes, Like it's as soon as everybody caught a grossfurt, I was out of it. But I'm saying I was a competitive end vigil My father wasn't at acre feedback, like, like, no, I've been one hundred and forty five pounds my whole career. That's why I never bothered when they said your cats on drugs. I knew how you're going to prove that my body is a temple.

I've been the same size since I was teend.

Like what do you? Yeah? Like, I haven't. I haven't changed off this pivot foot. This has always been who I was before stand up or anything. But it was a It was an interesting childhood. I appreciate my parents, even though I couldn't live within the religious frameworks so what they had set up. But that was more not wanting to live a double life and not want to embarrass my family.

You know what I mean, Because I read were a formal punishment for you is that they would take books because you mentioned you were such a voracious reader, And a formal punishment was when they would take the books for me because you could read fluently. You told me how at like three or four years old you could read read read.

I'm not just a little child's book, but you could read read well.

I'm saying, when we go to Haiti to do missionary work, understand that my mother and my father, nobody that's there with us speaks French, and I mean it speaks creole and reads French. So I'm in charge of everything from the housing, to the cars to the gardener, like I'm saying, So I'm not just reading. I'm reading in multiple languages. I'm probably reading three thousand books a year from the time that I'm eight years old to the time that I'm twelve. No fiction books at all. I'm only reading nonfiction.

You could drive at twelve.

You received the full scholarship to the National Science Academy in Dayton, Ohio, but you failed, so you couldn't become so you would become ineligible. Why do you want to take that opportunity.

I didn't see it as an opportunity. When I got in there. All the students were wearing lab coats, and it seemed very confined and restricted, and nobody seemed like they were having fun. It just seemed like everybody was smart. I didn't want that. That wasn't what I was signing up for at all. And plus I thought that I was Jesus was my big homie. So you know how you get a story about a dude joined the gang and get a big home. Like at this particular point in my life, my thought is that the Bible is the greatest book that's ever been written, that it houses the truth, and that it gives you this story of Jesus and that I'm supposed to be like him. So it's already in my head that as soon as I get thirteen, I'm leaving.

You.

At thirteen, you the only like, okay, Mama moving out? You moved from Ohio to Florida on your own. You weren't afraid. I mean you like, did you?

Did you not hold?

So?

What were you going?

So?

What were you gonna do when you got to Florida?

Don't say I wasn't afraid. There's no such thing as a human being of not being afraid. There are certain human beings that understand that being afraid in no way stops you from doing what you gotta do. Okay, So I was afraid but I couldn't be that afraid because I knew what had happened with Jesus, I knew how it worked out. I knew that I wasn't in the wrong with how I was feeling, and I knew that I didn't have any bad intentions in it. So I trusted God that it would work out. Why Florida, Because if you're raised in Ohio, the one thing on your list is I'm gonna get away from snow and I'm gonna get as far I want to go. Tell me the place. I literally went to a truck stop and I asked all the truck drivers where they was going, and there was one guy going to California, and there was one guy going to Florida, and they told me how long it was gonna take. And so that's why I ended up in Miami. Because how did you get there? You caught a bus?

No, I just told you.

I was at the truck stop. I got in. I didn't hitch you like I got in the back of the dude eighteen wheeler, me and my Rothwiler puppy and my suitcase. Yeah, because I was I probably had twenty five hundred dollars on me like I like I was shoveling snow and cutting grass, like I always had a box full of money.

When did you make your decision that you were going to leave Ohio and go somewhere and it ended up being Florida? So but when did you know that you were leaving dating Ohio going to Florida?

And my father and I his last interaction, somebody could have not made it, and we both understood that was all bad.

What was the disagreement about?

If you say that my family is very religious, just say I'm not. So anything that I'm going to do is it's going to fall out of the guidelines. But I'm not gonna let you tell me what I'm going to be. Even especially what you're saying is wrong, I can't condone wrong. And if I find out that something is wrong and I tell you what's wrong and you don't back me, that's what it is.

Even as a young child, you were willing to tell your parents that some of the things that you're saying doesn't coincide to what I've been reading in the Bible.

No, no, very, simply don't try to this fellowship me for sexual accent. I'm a virgin. Sorry, God don't make mistakes. You don't get two times to fuck me over. What do you mean You went to God and he told y'all was guilty. You just lie on God so long, that's it. No conversation deuces.

So that that's when you made the decision. After that conversation, right there, you say, no, I can't, I can't live under this room.

It wasn't a conversation, it was an altercation. And the altercation I love my father. My father loved me, but we are two men at it that it'll never be the same again. You can't sleep comfortably around me and I can't sleep comfortably around you.

How similar are you to your father?

No, I don't know. He's a great man. I'm saying because.

Your buddy heads.

Right, But I'm saying that generally happens with a father's son dynamic. It was just that religious relationships are always differentult than families. They always are.

Before he got to the point, because the dynamic he's father, your son, before that dynamic, and you step up on his level and you challenge him, you felt it was best for you to leave.

No, no, no, I'm not being challenged. I'm being beat to death.

Oh he was abusive.

I didn't say that. I said we were in an altercation.

Uh, I see what you did that. I saw what you did that. I saw what you did that. Cat, I saw what you did. You was an altercation. You didn't say you lost. You say he's an altercation.

I in no way gave you the impression that I won anything. I'm the one leaving. I'm out of bounds. This is his house, right ye. Yeah, So as long as I'm gonna be under his roofs, there are certain things that I'm gonna have to do right. And the only way that's gonna change is either this or that. And I'm saying I had two younger brothers, Like I'm not I'm not an unreasonable person, Like I don't have any mental issues whatsoever, despite what they leave people to believe.

You know, I make good, pretty good decisions.

Were you not? So how was their relationship with your father?

Were you not afraid to leave them?

Well, I asked, because it went all the way to the actual department, so it was actually going to be something. And when I asked them if they could just make sure that my brothers didn't get separated, and was to have you they said they couldn't make those type of guarantees, that they weren't really sure what would happen if this went down, and so part of leaving was the hope that it would be okay for them because none of them experienced what I experienced. I'm saying I'm the oldest. It's a lot riding on me. I'm supposed to at least religiously hold down the family's name right at this household, you know what I mean?

How much older are you than the baby and the knee baby?

Like a lot older, like if I'm at thirteen. Yeah, they're five and in pampers.

Wow. Right, you go to Florida. You tell the story.

I've heard you you homeless, and somebody else told the story, said they were homeless, and you said they hijacked your story.

Now, hey, I don't know.

At thirteen, I shouldn't have to tell you I'm homeless. I'm in I'm in Miami, Florida. I have no family members in Florida. I couldn't buy a house if I wanted to. I couldn't get an apartment if I wanted to. I don't have a credit history. Like this is not a stretch for me to say that I'm homeless. I'm living in a park in Coconut Grove. The park still exists to this day. For eight hours a day, I would get up and go to the library and study for eight hours a day to increase my education. And then I would leave out of there and go to the marina and steal car radios and make two thousand dollars almost daily. Like I had a routine.

So you and I could have played then Santa Oh thief in Santa Claus.

You could have played it.

No, the Santa Claus wasn't a thief. The Santa Claus. You can't tell me I read the script. Ricky Smiley told you he didn't read the script. The Santa Claus was a crackhead. He just had that outfit on. That's what I couldn't have played, Okay, Like I couldn't have played a black guy that got raped in the bathroom.

Right, So eighty point in time, did you like? Man, I made a mistake. Man, I should have stayed my buddy in Ohio. Man, cause this is man. Let's say what I signed up for.

I didn't experience anything once I left home that I hadn't signed up for if anything had saved my life, me being homeless for that small period of time allowed me to see all of the people that were in that situation, and to see that these were lawyers and doctors and teachers, and that these people were white and black and Asian and Indian. And the only thing that all of these homeless people had in in common was they made a bad decision and aligned themselves with drugs. And I interviewed them all what drug and guess what, Shannon, Well, nobody had a great story.

Nobody had a great story.

Of what meth had done for them, what crack had done for them, with cocaine had done for them, where heroin had done for them, with speed had done for them. Nobody had them stories. Everybody's story was I had my life together and then I decided to do this dumb thing and I lost my wife, I lost my house, I lost my cars, I lost my reputation, and I'm now out here sucking penis in the woods. What talk about scared straight? You ain't got the worry about me.

If that ain't weed or nicotine, you won't see me touching it.

I don't want no parts. I didnet seen what these things can do to people. Anything that take over your free will is the devil itself.

Have you ever thought about what your life would have been had you stayed in Dayton, Ohio?

No, that's like asking somebody that's in the NBA for fourteen years, like, what would have happened if you didn't come to the NBA. Oh I shudder to think. I thought it was what I was made for. I thought it was what I was built for. Anybody that knows me will tell you that when they first met Kat Williams, when I was Cat in the Hat, and they tell these stories about how he changed his name. Look, the truth of the matter is Disney sued me. Yeah, Cat and the Hack. They sent me a cease and desist letter. And I'm not even making twenty five thousand dollars a year and the mega company, Disney has sent me a cease and desist telling me I can't use any variations of that name. Fine, I'm Kat Williams. That's all that happened. I have been this same product the entire time. They will tell you when they first saw me doing stand up, I was just like this, this is what I bring, this my style.

When did it When did you know you was going you wanted? Were you always funny? Did you always want to.

Be a comedian? Did you stumble on a comedianship?

No?

I loved what they did, and so I studied them, all of them. I studied all of the white comedians because I wanted to know why is Monty Python funny? Why is Don not so talented? I wanted to know what is George Carlin thing like? Where? So I studied all of the comedy masters, regardless of the field, because I loved to laugh. I didn't know that these people were making a great living at doing this. I thought this is just what they did. They tell jokes, they're funny people. But I loved the craft, and that's why when I got into the craft, I thought it was my obligation to make sure that I kept writing new materials so much that it forced these comedians to stop doing the set they've been doing for ten years and keep writing some new stuff. And I knew that if I could get that to take on, that most of these bombs would have to just quit comedy because they can't keep up. They're not gonna keep writing an hour worth of material. I've written an hour worth of material nineteen times. They not gonna do it. Why because they're not creative writers. They want to get somebody else and have them write it and put it together.

So, if I'm listening to you, correct Correign if I'm wrong, I think the best thing that ever happened was the Internet because now they have to because normally, like you said, you could do a set and you do that, do that. That's set in Kansas City. People ain't hurting in San Francisco, people ain't hurting in Miami. They ain't heard in Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, so forth, and so on. Now you do a set, it's on the internet. Somebody heard it. So you can't do a set and make it last three months four months.

Well, it doesn't allow the regular comic the ability to grow is the real problem. Like the part of comedy is me taking these jokes in January and by March I've begun to craft this joke. It's not as simple as it was when I wrote it. It was just da da Da da da. But now it has the complexities of the fact that I'm having to deliver this to an East Coast audience, a down South audience, a Midwest audience, a Utah audience, a Colorado audience, And so it begins to take on a different complexion because you're having to deliver it to different people. Okay, and so this is what sharpens your joke. If you then take those sharpened jokes and make a special not you just randomly take some. So it's a process. You don't allow them to process. If the first time the guy did the joke, now that's his joke, and the joke is everywhere, that just sets it up for people to steal.

So how many times must you tell a joke before you master it?

How many times have you had to sleep with a woman before you're done with her? That's not fair. If it's great, never, if it ceases to have usefulness has been spoken? Right?

I read that you was raised in Florida. You had some help, some ladies of the night.

No, no, no, that's not true. No, that whole story doesn't take place in Florida. That story takes place in Oklahoma City.

Okay.

So after I'm in Florida, I then join I try to join the Marine Corps and it won't accept me because I'm I'm too young, and I've lied and told them I'm sixteen and.

My family's moving down now.

I don't have my ID, but it's coming, and so they let me go to the boot camp. Blah blah blah. That's not gonna work now, Okay, So I've learned that lesson. So then I get this job selling stuff door to door across the country. And so I've been to all fifty states. Again, I'm thirty fourteen years old, So I did that at While I'm doing that, one of the places i'm at, I'm in Oklahoma, and I've decided I'm gonna stay here because of meeting these ladies that you're talking about and that situation. I don't know at the time why that's important in my life, or why it's something I should be doing or any of that, but now later on it certainly helps me in formulating money. Mike for Friday after next and pimp named Slickback for the boondocks.

Oklahoma. So San Francisco, Oklahoma, Sacramento. From Florida, you moved to the West coast after So you're traveling. When did you set up shop on the West coast?

Were there?

So, I guess I'm uh eighteen or younger and I once I have my Once I have a child, I realized that I can't. It's a lot of things that I could use to make money that now is a no go. So anything with street aspirations that I might have thought about pursuing or been good at, I now am a single parent and I gotta redo these things. So I need comedy to really work out for me, and me and God go into extreme conversation where I'm explaining to him that I'm a crash out dummy if he don't send me a lifeline, like I need something I can hold on to. Before I had left Florida, I did stand up one time because we was trying to get in the club. I didn't have ID, so I said I was a comedian. They ended up having me do five minutes. I kept that in my head that I had done that. When we get to Oklahoma, they're having a competition for stand up and if you win, you get to go out on the road with Jeff Foxworthy and Dan Whitney who is Larry the Cable Guy, and Richard.

Jenny and these great comics. You get to open for him.

And once I did that, I realized, Okay, as a comedian. I'm like way behind schedule out and started this too late. All the funny guys are already funny and known names, like how am I going to progress? So I realize that I do better with a white audience than I do with a black audience. And I'm not sure why that's occurrent, but the white audience likes me more. That's interesting. So when I moved to Sacramento, it's because Sacramento has a white and a black audience almost fifty to fifty. That's almost the makeup of Sacramento. So I live in Sacramento for two years until I get to the point where I am equally as funny if the room is black as I am if the room is white. That's not enough. Now I need to be one of the good ones when it comes to black comics. So now I have to move to Oakland. And that's what lands me in Oakland for three years. Once I have dominated male black comedy in Oakland to my liking. Now I'm prepared to go to Los Angeles.

Now, now I.

Know you can't throw me any curveballs if it's a white audience, if it's a black audience, no matter what they are I'm prepared to deal with all of the audiences.

Do you write jokes according to the audience that you're going to be in front of or your joke universal?

Well, in the beginning, part of my framework is that I'm tailoring every show to this audience, okay. And that's how I was able to show my range and show that I was better than my competitors, is that I'm Kat Williams. But I was still doing clean comedy. So I was still going to churches and doing forty five minutes of stand up at the church with no curse words, no sex, drug material, no none of that, just straight stand up. And I was doing everything else. And yeah, that was the range. Is that where when in Rome do as the Romans do? So that's how I started. But as you begin to get better, you begin to be able to speak to your entire fan base. And that's really what's been helpful is that I've been having the same conversation with my fan base for twelve comedy specials.

Is that what said Cat Williams apart is your range is that you can do a comedy, do forty five minutes from the church. I can go to a comedy club in front of two fifty, or I can go into arena with fifteen thousand.

That's range because everybody can't do that.

Cat Well, if that's what range is called, then then then yeah it's ranged. But I I like the.

People I'm talking to.

You see what I'm saying, So it's not It's not like it can't be condescending because I'm talking to my white male friend.

When I'm telling that white joke.

Right when I'm talking about this joke about this black lady, I know that black lady. That's who I'm talking to. I'm I'm I'm I'm speaking to this fan base that I've been speaking to from the beginning. I already told them what I was on when I first came in. I told them they was gonna come after me, They was gonna cancel me, They was gonna say terrible things about me and try to mess my life up. I said that coming in to stand up. I'm saying it.

Well, you knew it was gonna be.

It has to be. I know I'm going into the belly of the beast. How could I be naive? I know that I'm going into Satan's playground, But I'm trying to be so good that you got to bring me in so close that I can see who's doing what and what's going on in.

There in San Francisco, You join the nation?

I was ever in San Francisco. I was in Oakland.

You was an Oakland Did you join the nation? Is that?

Yeah? Minister, honorable Minister far Khan and I have an extremely close relationship. He refers to me as one of his sons. So yeah, I spent a particular period of time. Let me explain, yes, because my particular background was already religious and super strict right. I didn't find out about other religions by reading about them. I went to their religion. I don't want to learn from Jewish people from outside. I want to be in a synagogue. I want to I don't want to learn about Muslim people from I want to be in a mosque. I don't want to hear about the Baptist or the Pentecostal. I want to go to their church. Let's see. And so that was the religious discovery that I was on through that period in my life.

What did join club?

Because I'm an official member by hitting that subscribe button where you never know who's going to be joining us for drinks and conversation. Don't be late to the party because you know we'd like to do something before do something.

Club Shay Shay

NFL legend Shannon Sharpe—3x Super Bowl champion and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame—sits do 
Social links
Follow podcast
Recent clips
Browse 220 clip(s)