And you got fired because of being too funny. Not for being late, not for smoking, not for cussing too much. You know, gave me the most rules. As a headliner, don't do this, don't say this, don't do nothing. TK Kirkland. Really? T to the mother doesn't care. Why? You do that. Why? Well, because a lot of comedians, headliner comedians, thing is they don't want to work hard. Yeah, we on Boss Talk 101. Yeah, we going to talk. If I wasn't going to make you doing this, we're going to make you doing nothing else. Didn't get a phone call from my man, Derek Keenah. Shout out to Derek Keenah. He said, hey, man, I'm writing for WBLS for earthquakes radio show because he was featuring for earthquake at the time. Got a radio segment, and they need some quick little one liners. I know you good at them. Send me a couple of them. I just text about four or five of them, send them in. Turns into a writing job for earthquakes first radio show. The quake comes to Dallas. Derek Keenah make it. I feel in for quake. Right then, at that same moment, Derek stops featuring for quake. Quake needs a feature. You. Prove myself that weekend. Hey, young. Won't go and roll with me. Three years in a row, I'm on the road with earthquake. Wow. By featuring for quake, I meet all the old geez. But by also earthquake was the first time, because everybody else, I got fired. I would do two or three shows and get fired for being too funny. They don't want you to take their spotlight. You're not here to be funny. Faizon, Keenah, I mean, Faizon said Keenah Williams pushed him away from the show because he thought he couldn't, he could come behind Faizon. Faizon tells me this, and I understand what you said now because he's saying he can't go behind me. I should came from us going to try to put a tour together and him thinking that I was not going to be funny. So where Amber is, you know, he's like, okay, I'm going to say, okay, but I'm okay. Yeah, but I've been doing this before you. Okay. Yeah, I can tell you, I was on stage robbing hairs. They ain't wearing, we had to bring it. And what happened was I was smashing him. You know, I'm saying he couldn't follow me. For sure. So that's where it really came from. The honest, he was like, oh, so he thought he was going to fuck with my money. I'm like, no, you're not going to do that either. You're going to do that. He didn't know what he was dealing with. The first comedian that ever give me love for being funny was Rodney Perry. The first comedian to promote me from the host spot to the feature spot because the host couldn't even get his credits right was a little real. Those were the first two dudes to actually give me a stem of validation when it came to working at the white people comedy clubs. So the white comedy clubs would never book me because I wouldn't go through their process. That's why I only encourage nobody to take my route. What is their process? I did it to bar and grill legends, real time, brick house lounge. I'm going to the black clubs. I'm doing black comedy. The white club comedy. Normally what? No man. Comedians normally do. That's what black comedians normally did. Okay. So just because you black skin don't make you a black comedian. That's why you have black comedians that you've never heard of take off because they were mainstream comedians. They worked the white rooms. They went to the white clubs. So when you go to hyenas or the improv on open mic night they have a sign up sheet about 40-50 names long. No matter what time you showed up the person there decides where you going. So they're going to focus you. They're going to put you on fourth block which is the last ten names. So you might get there seven p.m. to sign up. You ain't going on to one in the morning. And I did this week out the week even though I'm the funniest dude in the room. Another thing they would do the gatekeepers. So while the club is full of people that came to see a comedy show they're going to put their friends up. Bombing their ass off. She just couldn't joke their way out of a one-star bathroom. Have you ever seen somebody get booed off stage? Absolutely. He been booed off stage. No. He bombed. Yes. But not booed. But not booed. And damn show not off stage. No that's giving up. That's real. I'm going to do my time. You're going to have to cut my mic off before I walk off stage. I will never let the boo. I will never let the crowd ruin my shit. I'm booked to do a certain amount of time. I'm going to do my time. Now I wasn't booked for you to like me. I was booked to do my time. So the only way I can get my money is if I do all of my time. Oh okay. That's real. So I'm going to earn it now. Let's go. So that's when you start to get afraid. This is all about paying bills. So the next time you get a feature opportunity is bad enough that clubs don't fuck with you. It's bad enough that you don't play their game because you realize that it's read. So you making a name for yourself and you going around the country building relationships with these comics without doing it the white folks wait. So then when these headlines come to town they tell in the club, no, I won't black run to feature for me. So now the club got a break down and call me. Yeah. It would be fourth or fifth or sixth on the call list when the headline was out. I need a black comedian to open for me. Even though black is my first name and my stage name. I'm number six or seven on this even though I'm at the top of the heap as far as skill. Is that why you named yourself black run? Well, yeah, because I'm proud of myself. But I named myself black run because when I was in the hood living my hood like everybody called me black. Okay. And then when I would be doing my corporate life everybody would call me run. So my dichotomy is both of those. So I'm black to some and I'm run to others. I'm black run to everybody. Got it. So working with Quake, Quake see me on stage half stepping. He put me to the side in the dressing room. He said, Hey, young, when I first saw you in Dallas this ain't what I saw. I said, Well, oh, gee, I was doing a guest spot in Dallas. I never thought I would be working with you. He said, you say that to say what? I say, man, I'm just trying to play my part. You say I ain't one of them cats. I didn't bring you here to Pity Pat the room. I didn't bring you here to pacify the audience. And that was because of what had happened previously. Yes, man. When you got fired because of being too funny. Not for being late, not for smoking, not for cussing too much. You know, gave me the most rules as a headliner. Don't do this. Don't say this. Don't do that. No. TK Kirkland. Really? T to the mother doesn't care. Why? Why? A lot of comedians, headliner comedians, thing is they don't want to work hard. And some of them don't want to overrun the room. So if he's going to do a whole bunch of sex jokes, he's going to do a whole bunch of bitching and hoeing. He's going to do a whole bunch of things. He don't want you to do a thing. He don't want you to do a thing. He's going to do a thing too. He's going to do a thing too. He's going to do a thing too. Because now the crowd is ran down. They've heard too much of that. So his jokes lose. They sting if that was your material too. Especially if you're going to be on state for 30 minutes before him. But do you think that makes sense? It makes a whole lot of sense. Right. But at the same time, it also comes from a place of fear if you ask me. Because if your material was strong, it don't matter what you was talking about on stage before me. I don't care if you said a dog on fire right in front, right before you said my name. The minute the song plays and I go up there, I'm afraid you raised that whole chalkboard and teach a new lesson. That's just my take on it. And I learned that from the OGs and the dogs that I worked with from Quake and Dan from Danon. Quake say, man, I didn't bring you here to Pussyfoot. I brought you here to push me. I'm trying to work, work a new special. I'm trying to get a new hour together. I need you to push me. So then I started going on stage, dogging it. So then I'm sitting in the back and because I'm an earthquake fan, I'm watching his show every show. And you saw the way how you pushed him. You saw that. I saw where I pushed him. And then I also saw ways like, oh, if you didn't say it like this, but if you said it like that, I think you might have a stronger response from the crowd. Say you were helping him. I'm doing another game. So I'm starting to punch his jokes up. And at first, he like, young nigga, who are you to give me a punch up? And then he say, I'm a tested to him. He said, he spit it to me. You know, don't, don't write it to me. Say it to me how it should be said. And I told him to joke the way he should say it. And he slapped the string with and say, boy, you got something. And that night in his set, he told the joke, my way instead of his way. And everybody cracked up. When he got the response, he looked off stage and looked at me and nodded his head. I didn't know I had just got hired. I just thought I got validated like that. That was funny. From that moment on, then I became a trusted counsel. So when he would write a joke, he, young, what you think about this and that's validation right there. When an old G, a man who been doing this long as long as you've been alive, but who been professionally doing this as long as you've been knowing what stand up is, now values your opinion. All the rest of you local niggas can't tell me nothing. So from that, when he would introduce me to people, this my young gun, he write for me. And you know, a lot of comedians won't even tell that. No. Just like musicians and entertainers, according to them, they write everything. That's ego. So true greatness has no problem acknowledging the people who help you make be great. Henry Ford had that concept. That's right. I'm going to put myself in a room full of great people and what comes from that we are going to be, you know what I'm saying? That's what they say. The sum is greater than its individual parts. Like you surround yourself with great people. Y'all going to make something that's greater than any one of y'all could have ever did individually. Yeah, we on boss talk one on one. One on one. Yeah, we going.