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A lot of comics will come backstage before a show and say, Hows the crowd?
The reason I never ask that is because I came from a horrible crowd.
I came from a prison crowd.
I wasnt doing standup in a structured place.
It just happened to happen two or three times a day.
Are you still based in Houston?
Yeah, still in Houston.
I imagine youre traveling a lot then.
Yeah, the unicorn, man.
I wanted to do something different, my way.
I dont think you have to go to LA, New York, or Atlanta to make it big.
People didnt listen to me with that, but now maybe theyll listen.
Do you think that by not moving to an industry-heavy city youre making more work for yourself?
Shout out your hometown.
Get some awareness for other places.
It wasnt the internet by any means.
I dont have a big social media following.
I was doing standup before that came about, before it was a necessity.
Being on the road consistently for 15 years honing my craft did it for me.
I think I did it right.
I paid my dues and got to where I had a solid act that was actually mine.
I wanted people to know this is me.
Its been me for a long time.
Its funny, man.
Now all of a sudden everybody has a prison story.
Im like, I didnt do it for you.
This new special is kind of a full circle moment.
You were put in prison, which is where you honed your chops for storytelling and making people laugh.
Its where you got your passion for standup.
You get out and standup becomes your career.
Now youve got a special where youre back in, performing for people who are currently locked up.
The whole thing is kind of a redemption story.
Its pretty dope, huh?
It kind of feels like that even though its not the whole finished story.
This is like the crescent moon to my story.
But this feels good.
It feels like opening the door and getting people to understand that anybody can end up in this situation.
Just to clarify, this current special was filmed in a jail, not a prison.
So youre saying that you feel like theres still some unfinished business for you in terms of this theme.
Theres definitely unfinished business.
The Texas prison system was ridiculous in their understanding of what I was trying to do.
We dont want you to say anything negative about the prison.
[laughing] I dont mean to laugh, but thats so ridiculous to me.
You should be laughing.
They were sitting there looking ridiculous as well.
I was like, Yo, I want you to make me understand what youre saying.
Im a free person.
I have the right to voice my opinion.
I dont have to stop just because you say something makes sense.
It does not make sense.
A lot of the things you do dont make sense.
This is supposed to be a correctional facility.
I think you forgot about the word correctional and just want to have a facility to house people.
Youre not correcting anything.
I made it from there.
You dont want hope for your prisoners?
They want them to be hopeless.
So the Texas prisons didnt want to play ball.
What was it about the county jail that was different?
Captain Shelton and the whole staff were very inviting.
They said, Well do it.
I mean, they had their questions as well.
They wanted to see to it I just wasnt going to be down on the jail.
Just dont block me out.
Since they didnt block me out, we went that route.
What is the outlook for a continuation of this series, for lack of a better term?
You clearly have a whole other chapter with the prison material.
I have my end locked down.
I have my end written.
I have the prison special written, which is at least two hours.
Then I wrote another special calledEgoorEgotistical.
Now its about how the special goes, how people receive it.
I think its worthy of being nominated for something.
Well see what we can do.
Im ready on my end.
Im just waiting on them.
