Listen Again: Katt Williams

Summary

Club Shay Shay Episode Summary: Listen Again with Katt Williams

Episode Information

• Title: Club Shay Shay
• Host/Author: iHeartPodcasts, The Volume, and Shay Shay Media
• Description: NFL legend Shannon Sharpe—3x Super Bowl champion and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame—hosts conversations with top athletes, celebrities, and influencers, delving into their accomplishments, challenges, and personal journeys.
• Episode: Listen Again: Katt Williams
• Release Date: December 25, 2024

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Introduction The episode begins with host Shannon Sharpe warmly welcoming renowned comedian and actor Katt Williams to Club Shay Shay. Shannon praises Katt's multifaceted career, highlighting his achievements and unique comedic talent.

Notable Quote:

• Shannon Sharpe [02:01]: "World-renowned multitality, a comedy legend... Mr. Katt Williams."

Tensions with Fellow Comedians Katt Williams initiates a candid dialogue about his strained relationships with prominent comedians like Rickey Smiley, Cedric the Entertainer, and Steve Harvey. He alleges instances of joke stealing and unprofessional behavior, expressing frustration over how these individuals have undermined his career.

Notable Quotes:

• Katt Williams [05:42]: "Rickey Smiley sat here and told you he had Katt Williams role."
• Katt Williams [06:17]: "You take this and he what? Ricky Rickey Smiley knows this."

Katt's Upbringing and Early Life Delving into his childhood, Katt shares his experiences growing up in Ohio under the strict framework of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Demonstrating his early intellectual prowess, he recounts reading the entire encyclopedia set by age seven and performing for large audiences by age five.

Notable Quotes:

• Katt Williams [34:02]: "I have studied all of the comedy masters, regardless of the field, because I loved to laugh."

Approach to Comedy and Content Creation Katt emphasizes his commitment to originality and integrity in comedy. He discusses his rigorous process of crafting jokes, ensuring they resonate across diverse audiences, and avoiding content that could be considered offensive or unethical.

Notable Quotes:

• Katt Williams [58:22]: "I'm a vessel. He's given me these gifts to be able to do certain things."

Hollywood Experiences and Movie Roles Katt reflects on his experiences in Hollywood, particularly his role in "Friday After Next." He claims to have faced misrepresentation and favoritism, asserting that his contributions to the script and character development were overshadowed by other actors.

Notable Quotes:

• Katt Williams [84:07]: "I wrote it. What I'm saying... Katt Williams was supposed to be the Santa Claus."

Touring and Audience Relationships Discussing his extensive touring history, Katt highlights his adaptability in performing for both black and white audiences. He underscores the importance of understanding and connecting with diverse crowds to hone his comedic delivery.

Notable Quotes:

• Katt Williams [53:56]: "Every guy I mentioned to you is not funny out there in real life."

Views on the Comedy Industry and Gatekeeping Katt criticizes the gatekeeping within the comedy industry, lamenting the lack of opportunities for genuine talent. He advocates for a merit-based approach, where comedians earn their success through hard work and originality rather than favoritism.

Notable Quotes:

• Katt Williams [77:57]: "They rock with who they rock with and they don't with who they don't."

Personal Life: Family and Parenting Katt opens up about his personal life, particularly his role as a single father to twelve children. He discusses the challenges and responsibilities that come with parenthood, emphasizing the values of integrity and responsibility he strives to impart to his children.

Notable Quotes:

• Katt Williams [133:20]: "I don't teach anybody anything that's over 18... integrity."

Thoughts on Current Issues: Cancel Culture and Comedy Evolution Addressing the impact of cancel culture, Katt argues that truth and accountability are paramount. He expresses concerns over how comedic content has evolved, suggesting that modern platforms sometimes dilute genuine humor in favor of broader appeal.

Notable Quotes:

• Katt Williams [166:12]: "This is the reckoning 2024."

Closing Remarks and Future Projects In the concluding segments, Katt discusses his ongoing and future projects, including his upcoming Netflix special and The Dark Matter tour. He reiterates his dedication to maintaining authenticity in his work and continues to advocate for truth within the entertainment industry.

Notable Quotes:

• Katt Williams [84:10]: "If I didn't know no better, I'd tell you."

Conclusion This intense and unfiltered conversation between Shannon Sharpe and Katt Williams presents a deep dive into the comedian's personal struggles, professional grievances, and unwavering commitment to authenticity in his craft. Katt's candid reflections offer listeners an unvarnished look at the complexities of navigating the entertainment industry while maintaining personal integrity.

Notable Final Quote:

• Katt Williams [177:05]: "It's the reckoning 2024."

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Key Takeaways:

• Katt Williams passionately addresses his conflicts with other comedians, emphasizing issues of originality and integrity.
• His upbringing under strict religious guidelines fostered a voracious appetite for knowledge and performance from an early age.
• Katt's approach to comedy is deeply rooted in authenticity, diligent content creation, and connecting with diverse audiences.
• He critiques the gatekeeping and favoritism prevalent in Hollywood, advocating for a merit-based comedy landscape.
• As a dedicated single father, Katt balances his demanding career with his responsibilities towards his twelve children, instilling strong values in them.
• Katt remains vocal about the impacts of cancel culture and the evolution of comedy, emphasizing the need for truth and accountability.

This episode serves as a comprehensive exploration of Katt Williams' perspectives on comedy, personal life, and the entertainment industry's challenges, offering valuable insights for fans and newcomers alike.

Transcript

[Katt Williams]

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[Shannon Sharpe]

It'S only on Prime Video. This week. Keep the holiday celebration going as the Seattle Seahawks take on the Chicago Bears.

[Al Michaels]

You're gonna love this.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Coverage begins with TNF tonight. Not a Prime member, sign up for a 30 day free trial to stream the game. It's the Seahawks and Bears Thursday only on Prime Video. Restrictions apply. See Amazon.com Amazon prime for details.

[Katt Williams]

This is the other side of Kirk Franklin Prank. This is the reckoning 2024. All my life been grinding all my life Sacrifice, hustle, paid the price, wanna slice got to roll a dice that's why all my life I been grinding all my life look all my life been grinding all my life Sacrifice hustle, paid the price, wanna slice got to roll a dice that's why all my life I've been grind.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Hello. Welcome to another episode of Club Shay Shay. I am your host, Shannon Sharpe. I'm also the proprietor of Club Shay Shay. The guy that's stopping by for conversation and the drink today. Ladies and gentlemen, you're gonna love him. Some call him the greatest. The greatest. One of the greatest comedians dead or alive. One of America's greatest entertainers, One of the funniest men on the planet. World renowned multitality, a comedy legend. He's touring. He's the top touring comedian selling out arenas. He's a hilarious storyteller, Emmy award winning actor, voice actor, rapper, writer, producer, director, icon, genius, a national treasure, philanthropist, humanitarian, social activist, a father. One of the great funny men of our generation and any generation, Mr. Cat Williams.

[Katt Williams]

Thank you, sir.

[Shannon Sharpe]

How was that intro?

[Katt Williams]

Magnificent. You are. You are. You are magnificent at intros. And you did not skimp on mine. I appreciate it.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Appreciate that. You know, anytime you come to Club Shay Shay, we have to toast. Yes, bro. You've been doing it. I mean, you told you one of the top tour. You, one of the top touring comedians of all time, you already got started before we started taping.

[Katt Williams]

I did appreciate that. Tell the people at home I thought they was lying. And yeah, this particular alcohol is stronger than you think it would be probably by about 2. And unbelievably smoother and milder by the same, maybe 30% than you could possibly expect. And unlike cognac's the world over, this one doesn't taste like wood at the end and it doesn't taste like it's got artificial colors and it doesn't taste like it's got artificial flavors. It's a. It's a fine product.

[Shannon Sharpe]

He's a connoisseur. You can tell he's a cognac connoisseur. He understands the method that goes into making cognac.

[Katt Williams]

Right. Well, as a comedian, you get free drinks at the club. So all comedians either turn out to be connoisseurs like myself or straight up and down alcoholics like 60% of Hollywood.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Well, thanks for stopping by the club. I understand that you're very, very busy and for you to take time out of your busy schedule and stop in today, we really appreciate it here at Club Shay Shay. So thanks for stopping by, Kat.

[Katt Williams]

And I needed you to know why I came by.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, I need you to tell us why people know.

[Katt Williams]

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.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay.

[Katt Williams]

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 guests. 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 made a safe place for the truth to be told. You know what I mean?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Thank you. I appreciate that.

[Katt Williams]

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.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You gonna set the record straight?

[Katt Williams]

Are you kidding me? You let Rickey Smiley sit here and you said out that mouth you stole Friday after next, the one I was. I wish all, all of America fumbled a bit when that happened. And then he said some stuff that we haven't heard in 100 years. In Hollywood, you ain't say nothing. This man told you he had Cat Williams role. He was gonna be Money Mike and Katt Williams was gonna be. Was gonna be the Santa Claus. Now let's three quick points.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Three quick points.

[Katt Williams]

You mean in Hollywood they cast a five foot five black Santa Claus that weigh 145 pounds? That your story is the Rickey 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?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Well, I didn't know he.

[Katt Williams]

He shouldn't be able. You wouldn't let an athlete that been on steroids talk about one of the greats. Rickey Smiley can't act. Cause Rickey 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 at the premier. You telling this man you stole that? Oh, 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?

[Shannon Sharpe]

He couldn't have played that role like you?

[Katt Williams]

I thought he was no. 1. Why? No, he was with KD. He beat up Terry Crews. Why nobody know this story you talking about. In Hollywood they switched off roles. You take this and he what? Ricky Rickey Smiley knows this. And I don't know why he would lose a child and come on the air and 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 201. 200 black comedians auditioned for the role of Money Mike with me. You're saying all 200 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 Rickey Smiley was okay with. Katt Williams had to take the risk in front of the studios and the cast and our powers that be in his very first movie and say respectfully, humbly, guys, if we talk about anything else, I have no credibility and I have no pull. But we talking about comedy, where I have all the credibility and all the pull. 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? 35 members of the cast and crew have never brought up that Rickey Smiley was gonna play Money Mike. No one ever saw me 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, Katt Williams wrote. So what Rickey Smiley say on his. You can't say my lines. I wrote them. That's how I already know that I'm gonna be funnier than you. What he told everybody was Katt Williams. Don't nobody know who he is. I'm on the radio. I'm with Stephen. 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. And Hollywood has never heard this in a hundred years, he was so egregious, I put in my contract that I won't work with Rickey Smiley again unless he's in a dress. Now, what was Rickey Smiley's next movie? Was it First Sunday? Did he wear a dress in it? You bet he did. It's in my contract.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Why would you put that in your. In your contract, Kat?

[Katt Williams]

That's where he's a believable actor. Him and Tyler Perry can't play a man to save their life. They play good women. And I believe that the best actor should be in the best role.

[Shannon Sharpe]

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.

[Katt Williams]

An Outright lie that he knows is a lie.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So why would he say it?

[Katt Williams]

Cause 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. Cedric told you when you asked him, did you steal Katt Williams joke? He said it don't line up. How it don't line up? That I did it on TV in 2018. You came to see me at the Comedy Store do it in 2019 and then did it on the Kings of Comedy. Like what doesn't line up? This is a televised joke that Mark Curry helped me punch up and get to the level that it was the same stick 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 lineup in the business. And it's a man unit. Then you ask it, why you not a movie star? I didn't want to be a movie star. This the same Negro that hated On Bernie with this same thing. I didn't wanna be a movie star. No, you couldn't be a movie star. There are 30,000 new scripts in Hollywood every year. Not one of them ask for a country bumpkin black dude that can't talk. Good old Buckeybee and look like Mr. Potato Head. There ain't none. You would have to have a range. I played a lot of characters. 60 movie roles. I'm not playing Katt Williams in there.

[Shannon Sharpe]

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

[Katt Williams]

I'm not fueled by alcohol. 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's sitting here telling you why he ain't a movie star. He over here look like a walrus. You didn't say nothing. He can't even get his arms off his stomach sitting over here. Why I'm not a movie star. What?

[Shannon Sharpe]

It's a situation.

[Katt Williams]

He never wrote anything. Remember when Cedric the Entertainer starts? He's supposed to be singing, dancing and telling jokes. That's why he's called the Entertainer.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right?

[Katt Williams]

We found out he can't sing. Can't sing, dance and doesn't write jokes. He did four comedy specials. They're so bad, Shannon, they're not available on Netflix or Tubi Can I say that again for the audience? They're so bad that they're not available on Netflix or tubi.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You don't think Sam's a good. A good comedian?

[Katt Williams]

The world doesn't think that, sir. I have 12 comedy specials. He has four specials that are not available on Netflix or tubi.

[Shannon Sharpe]

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

[Katt Williams]

No, no.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You wanted to set the record straight.

[Katt Williams]

Winners are not allowed to allow losers to rewrite history. I don't say any of these things. If my name is not breached by these people on your platform, if you give a liar a platform to lie, then I'm not being messy by saying, hold on, that never happened. It's untrue. And there. There are hundreds of witnesses for each thing I'm saying.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So let me ask you this. What is your relationship with Steve Harvey, Rickey Smiley, and Cedric the entertainer as you sit here currently?

[Katt Williams]

They. For 30 years, they're a group. These aren't three random guys. The way that Rickey Smiley kept appearing at all of my auditions is because of Steven. Said 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. Cause 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. Yes. Why didn't you get along with the other teams you were competing against if you were a Denver bronco? Why you don't get along with the cowboys? Something wrong with you?

[Shannon Sharpe]

But I don't disagree.

[Katt Williams]

I don't disagree.

[Shannon Sharpe]

All the cowboys, cat. Damn you like this.

[Katt Williams]

No, that's not okay.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What comedians do you like?

[Katt Williams]

Did you play against the team?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yes.

[Katt Williams]

I've taken 46 comedians with me on the road. 46.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay.

[Katt Williams]

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.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Just go to straight.

[Katt Williams]

Faison said that getting a Netflix special is easy. I have 12 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 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 they program, you get a light skin, weird face, wife that never do an interview. Listen, in 20 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. What 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 deviants is all catching hell in 2024. It's up for all of them. It don't matter if you, Diddy or Whoever you is, T.G. jakes, 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.

[Shannon Sharpe]

And you have no more.

[Katt Williams]

Amen. Amen.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I kind of get on here right after that. I don't really kind of know where to go. Let me one more time. Right, we good now?

[Katt Williams]

Because the people want to know. Why would he get blackballed? Yeah, I was going to ask that. Because in 30 years I've done nothing but collect information, knowledge and your secrets. So if you and a man was in a corner doing something you wasn't supposed to be doing, you would 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 ain't never done a hard drug in his life and don't have no stories of doing Nobod dirty. And they'll just go out and they'll 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 out to make sure that no one in America would be wearing what Money Mike was wearing. I told them to go get the prowler. I then told them to paint it purple. I told them, don't have an actor 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 aggrandizing.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Why didn't Cube set the record straight? Terry Crews could have set the record straight. Mike Epps could have set the record straight. Why none of them set the record straight?

[Katt Williams]

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

[Shannon Sharpe]

But that's the thing, Cat. Normally when people give you information, I'm thinking I'm hearing it for the first time. And they're giving information no one else knows or have ever heard. So I'm taking them at face value.

[Katt Williams]

These are like, 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 he. Mark Curry was touring with him 25 years ago, he was making $3,000 a show in cash and doing five shows a week. They just tell the stories. Thanks to my wife, I'm where I am. You said that about the first wife. You figured get 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 think they can rewrite history. Guy Tory did a beautiful special about the Comedy Store on Fat Tuesday where he said that Steve and Cedric and Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish came through there and made all lies. Steve and Cedric never performed at The Comedy Store at all. Tiffany was only seen at the laugh factory. In 15 years in Hollywood, no one in Hollywood has a memory of going to a 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.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, it was.

[Katt Williams]

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 Jussie Smollett gonna 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.

[Shannon Sharpe]

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

[Katt Williams]

What 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 sold their soul in Hollywood is? What 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 25 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. Any more than you were when you lined up across from a superior team. Yeah. On paper they're a better team.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Katt Williams]

They have all the assets and resources and 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 Sharpe gotta be a different person than that other person.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Absolutely.

[Katt Williams]

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, they 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. Whoo. Huh.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So you wonder what they did to get there.

[Katt Williams]

I told him no, what y'all do. And this is why. When I walk in a room, heads go down behind my back. I'm nothing. I'm just a regular old comedian that's bitter and jealous, but in my face. No, no, no. The King has walked in and they have to respect it. Only because I've 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, when 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 Katt Williams in Detroit in front of 10,000 people and lost because Katt Williams said he was actually bald. And that was a wig. And I went in, and that's why he couldn't do standup anymore. Imagine him coming to tell you another story where he got so big and it was Bernie and them's fault because they wanted to be movie stars. What? You called Ocean 11 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.

[Shannon Sharpe]

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

[Katt Williams]

Every guy I mentioned to you is not funny out there in real life. So no. Faison's never done his own tour in 30 years. Steve Harvey don't do stand up no more. Cedric doesn't write. I'm sorry, he doesn't write. Rickey 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.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right?

[Katt Williams]

And he is. But I'm a stand up comedian. This is my 19th 100 city tour. I'm not gonna have a conversation with these lazy bums that'll 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 here talking crazy talk about how good you look.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What?

[Katt Williams]

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

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay, let's get to your upbringing. We're gonna circle back and we'll get.

[Katt Williams]

Huh?

[Shannon Sharpe]

I wanna protect it real quick because you had said for the Kings of Comedy, it was in 2018. 2019, but did you mean 1999? Because it came out in 2000.

[Katt Williams]

So I just wanted to make sure. No, no. So what I meant to say was, remember he said I couldn't do standup anymore. I had seven TV shows. I said he didn't have any of those TV shows at the time.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I know you talk about. You talking about Cedric, joke stealer from Cedric. Cedric.

[Katt Williams]

Okay. 2018, 2019.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But it came out in 2000, so.

[Katt Williams]

I just want to make sure.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay.

[Katt Williams]

No, no, no, no, no. What comes out in 2000?

[Shannon Sharpe]

The original kings of comedy.

[Katt Williams]

Right? My. I'm on bet's comic view and they're using this as the commercial in 1998. That's why I'm saying. Yeah, so if I. Yeah, so if I said the dates wrong.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, so let's go back and clear that up.

[Katt Williams]

Okay.

[Shannon Sharpe]

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.

[Katt Williams]

Correct.

[Shannon Sharpe]

To that point you say.

[Katt Williams]

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 BET's comic view twice. It had done so well on BET's comic view that they had made it part of the commercial. So part of the commercial of make sure you tune in to BET 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. Right. Mark Curry had already helped me work on this joke because I thought it was good. Cause I was getting a standing ovation on it. He had me go back in the lab to help 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.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay.

[Katt Williams]

1998, 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 Kat 30 times and Kat didn't do as I stand before you, Shannon, I would have 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.

[Al Michaels]

Thursday Night Football is on, and it's only on prime video. This Thursday, the Seattle Seahawks traveled to the Windy City to face the Chicago Bears. Join Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreet and Kaylee Hartung for this exciting matchup. You know you feel for Bears fans just when you think everything could finally go right. It's been a very, very up and down season. But anytime you have the number one overall pick, you will get me to watch no matter what. Coverage begins at 7pm with football's best party, TNF Tonight, live from Chicago. Not a Prime member. Not a problem. Simply sign up for a 30 day free trial. You can cancel at any time. It's the Seahawks and Bears at 7pm Eastern on Thursday Night Football. And it's on Prime Video restrictions apply. See Amazon.com Amazon prime for details.

[Justin Penick]

What's going on, everybody? This is Justin Penick from John Boy Media, the host of the Football Today podcast alongside Bobby Skinner and Chris Rose. We're rolling three times a week on Mondays, on Wednesdays, on Fridays. Breaking down everything you need to know about the NFL. We're talking about the MVP race. Is Josh Allen going to pull it out? Lamar Jackson? Can Saquon Barkley even break the rushing record? Can the Steelers keep up their momentum? We talk about everything. We break it down. Stats, analytics. And of course, Chris Rose is bringing his perspective on being a pro in the media world. As well. Listen Listen to football Today on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and you will be glad you did. Hope you could join us for the postseason run.

[Shannon Sharpe]

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[Al Michaels]

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[Shannon Sharpe]

Terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com basketball terms let's get to y'all bringing Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, raised in Dayton, Ohio. What was Cat Williams upbringing like? Your parents were Jehovah Witness. You were a prodigy. You were brilliant. You talked to me that you got accepted to college at seven years of age. You could read fluently at three years of age. So having that kind of knowledge, having that kind of prodigy. So what was so I mean, was it. What was your upbringing? How was it? How was life as Cat Williams Crunk Coming up.

[Katt Williams]

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 know this, but I I love to read. I was voracious because they told me when I was young that knowledge was powerful. That knowledge was power and I had studied powerful people and I I really believe that. I immediately my next project was to read the whole encyclopedia set. So when you're like 6, 7 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, it was a, it was a confusing time. But yeah, I had a childhood. I was grown, But I, at 5 years old, I was in front of 5, 10,000 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.

[Shannon Sharpe]

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?

[Katt Williams]

Time. No, it, it wasn't that. It, it was. I'm saying I'm, I'm almost 100 years old right now, but if we go outside right now, I can run a 4340 or, or sub. I can do a 416 if I'm.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Jimmy John's across the street, we can order a sub. But, oh, you've been on the submarine. That what you saw.

[Katt Williams]

So, so back then it was even greater. So you got this guy that all the coaches want to play, man cast.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I don't do that.

[Katt Williams]

Hold on. Because I'm five foot five in the fifth grade. I've been this size my whole life. Like there was a portion of school where I was one of the big dudes. As soon as everybody caught they growth spurt, I was out of there. But I'm saying I was a competitive individual. My father wasn't athletic. Like, no, I've been 145 pounds my whole career. That's why I never bothered when they said, you cat's on drugs. I knew, how you gonna prove that? My body is a temple.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I've been the same size since I was 10.

[Katt Williams]

Like, what do you. Yeah, like I haven't changed off this pivot foot. This has always been who I was before standup or anything. But it was an interesting childhood. I appreciate my parents, even though I couldn't live within the religious framework of 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?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Because I read where a form of punishment for you is that they would take books because you mentioned you were such a voracious reader. And a form of punishment was when they would take the books for them because you could read fluently. You told me how. How at like 3 or 4 years old, you could read, read, read.

[Katt Williams]

Not.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Not just a little child's book, but you could read, read.

[Katt Williams]

Well, I'm saying when we. When we go to Haiti to do missionary work, understand that my mother and my father, nobody that's there with us speaks French. I mean, it speaks Creole and reads French. So I'm in charge of everything from the housing to the cars to. To the gardener. Like I'm saying. So I'm not just reading. I'm reading in multiple languages.

[Shannon Sharpe]

How old are you?

[Katt Williams]

I'm probably reading 3,000 books a year from the time that I'm 8 years old to the time that I'm 12. No fiction books at all. I'm only reading nonfiction.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You could drive at 12. You received a full scholarship to the National Science Academy in Dayton, Ohio, but you failed. So you couldn't become. So you would become ineligible. Why did you want to take that opportunity?

[Katt Williams]

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 a gang and he get a big homie? 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, okay? So it's already in my head that as soon as I get 13, I'm leaving.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You.

[Katt Williams]

You.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You at 13, you not only, like, okay, Mom, I'm moving out. You move from Ohio to Florida on your own? You weren't afraid? I mean, you, like, did you.

[Katt Williams]

Hold on. Did you not have.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So what were you. So what were you going to do when you got to Florida?

[Katt Williams]

Don't say I wasn't afraid. There's no such thing as a human being of not being afraid, okay? There are certain human beings that understand that being afraid in no Way stops you from doing what you got to do.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay?

[Katt Williams]

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. Work out.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Why Florida?

[Katt Williams]

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 look. Tell me the place. I literally went to a truck stop and I asked all the truck drivers where they was going. And it was one guy going to California, and it was one guy going to Florida, and they told me how long it was going to take. And so that's why I ended up in Miami, because.

[Shannon Sharpe]

How'd you get there? You caught a bus?

[Katt Williams]

No, I just told you. I was at the truck stop. He didn't hitchhike. I got in. I didn't hitchhike. I got in the back of the dude's 18 wheeler. Me and my Rottweiler puppy and my suitcase. Yeah, because I was. I probably had $2,500 on me. Like, I. Like I was shoveling snow and cutting grass. Like, I always had pockets full of money.

[Shannon Sharpe]

When did you make the decision that you were gonna leave Ohio and go somewhere and it ended up being Florida, so. But when did you know that you were leaving Dayton, Ohio, going to Florida?

[Katt Williams]

And my father and I's last interaction. Somebody could have not made it. And we both understood that was all bad.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What was the disagreement about?

[Katt Williams]

If you say that my family is very religious, just say I'm not. So anything that I'm going to do is going to fall out of the guidelines. But I'm not going to 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 it's wrong and you don't back me, that's what it is.

[Shannon Sharpe]

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

[Katt Williams]

No, no. Very simply, don't try to disfellowship me for sexual acts. And 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 you I was guilty. You just lied on God so long. That's it. There's no conversation. Deuces.

[Shannon Sharpe]

That's what it was. That's when you made the decision. After that conversation right there, you say, nah, I can't live under this roof.

[Katt Williams]

It wasn't a conversation. It was an altercation. In the altercation, I love my father, my father love 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.

[Shannon Sharpe]

How similar are you to your father?

[Katt Williams]

I don't know. He's a great man. I'm saying.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Cause y'all butted heads, right?

[Katt Williams]

But I'm saying that generally happens with a father son dynamic. It was just that religious relationships are always difficult in families. They always are before it got to.

[Shannon Sharpe]

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 you.

[Katt Williams]

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

[Shannon Sharpe]

Oh, he was abusive.

[Katt Williams]

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

[Shannon Sharpe]

I see what you did there. I saw what you did there. I saw what you did there, Cat. I saw what you did. You was in the altercation. You didn't say you lost. You say you was in the altercation.

[Katt Williams]

I in no way gave you the impression that I won anything. I'm the one leading. I'm out of bounds. This his house, right? Yeah. Yeah. So as long as I'm gonna be under his roof, there are certain things that I'm gonna have to do.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Katt Williams]

And the only way that's gonna change is either this or that. And I. 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 lead people to believe, you know, I make good, Pretty good decisions.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Were you not. So how was their relationship with your father? Were you not afraid to leave them?

[Katt Williams]

Well, I asked because it went all the way to the actual department, so it was actually gonna be something. And when I asked them if they could just make sure that my brothers get separated and what 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. Family's name at this household. You know what I mean?

[Shannon Sharpe]

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

[Katt Williams]

Like, a lot older. Like, I. If I'm 12, 13. Yeah. They're five and in Pampers. Wow.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You go to Florida, you tell the story. I've heard you. You were homeless, and somebody else told the story, said they were homeless, and you said they. They hijacked your story. Now, I don't. Hey, I don't.

[Katt Williams]

At 13, I shouldn't have to tell you I'm homeless. I'm in a. 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 $2,000 almost daily. Like, I had a routine.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So you really could have played that old thief and Santa Claus. You could have played him.

[Katt Williams]

No, the Santa Claus wasn't a thief. The Santa Claus. You can't tell me. I read the script. Rickey 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.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay?

[Katt Williams]

Like, I couldn't have played a black guy that got raped in the bathroom.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right? So at any point in time you like, man, I made a mistake, man. I should have stayed my butt in Ohio, man. Cause this is. Man, this ain't what I signed up for.

[Katt Williams]

I didn't experience anything once I left home that I hadn't signed up for. If anything, it 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 common was they made a bad decision and aligned themselves with drugs. And I interviewed them all. What drug? And guess what, Shannon? Nobody had a great story Nobody had a great story of what meth had done for them, what crack had done for them, what cocaine had done for them, what heroin had done for them, what 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 now I'm now out here sucking penis. Us in the woods. What? Talk about scared straight. You ain't got to worry about me. If it ain't weed or nicotine, you won't see me touching it. I don't want no parts. I done seen what these things can do to people. Anything that take over your free will is the devil itself.

[Shannon Sharpe]

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

[Katt Williams]

No. That's like asking somebody that's in the NBA for 14 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 Katt Williams, when I was Cat in the Hat, and they tell these stories about how he changed his name. Look, look, the truth of the matter is Disney sued me. Yeah. I was Cat in the Hat. They sent me a cease and desist letter, and I'm not even making $25,000 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 Katt 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 standup, I was just like this. This is what I bring. This my style.

[Shannon Sharpe]

When did you know you was going, you want. Were you always funny? Did you always want to be a comedian? Did you stumble on a comedianship?

[Katt Williams]

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's 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 love 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 material so much that it forced these comedians to stop doing the set they've been doing for 10 years and keep writing some new stuff. And I knew that if I could get that to take on that, most of these bums would have to just quit comedy because they can't keep up. They not gonna keep writing an hour worth of material. I've written an hour worth of material 19 times. They not gonna do it.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Why?

[Katt Williams]

Because they're not creative writers. They want to get somebody else and have them write it and put it together.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So if I'm listening to you. Correct. Correct me 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 set in Kansas City. People ain't heard it in San Francisco. People ain't heard it 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.

[Katt Williams]

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.

[Shannon Sharpe]

People, okay?

[Katt Williams]

And so this is what sharpens your joke. You then take those sharpened jokes that make us special. Not you just randomly take some. So it's a process. You don't allow them the 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.

[Shannon Sharpe]

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

[Katt Williams]

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. So it has been spoken, right?

[Shannon Sharpe]

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

[Katt Williams]

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

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay?

[Katt Williams]

So after I'm in Florida, I then join. I try to join the Marine Corps and they won't accept me because I'm 16, I'm too young, and I've lied and told them I'm 16 and my family's moving down and I don't have my id, but it's coming. And so they let me go to the boot camp. Da, da, da. 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 50 states. Again, I'm 14 years old, so I did that. 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, right? And a pimp named Slick back for the boondocks, Oklahoma.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So San Francisco, Oklahoma, Sacramento from Florida. You moved to the west coast after. So you traveling? When did you set up shop on the West Coast? How old were you then?

[Katt Williams]

So I. I guess I'm 18 or younger. And I. Once I have my. Once I have a child, I realize 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 being 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, hold on to. Before I 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 end up having me do five minutes. But I kept that in my head that I had done that. When we get to Oklahoma, they're having a competition for standup. 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 Them. And once I did that, I realized, okay, as a comedian, I'm, like, way behind schedule. I done started this too late. All the funny guys are already funny and known names like, how am I going to progress? So I realized that I do better with a white audience than I do with a black audience. And I'm not sure why that's occurring, but the white audience likes me more. That's interesting. So when I move to Sacramento, it's because Sacramento has a white and a Black audience. Almost 50. 50. 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 curve balls 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.

[Shannon Sharpe]

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

[Katt Williams]

Well, in the beginning, part of my framework is that I'm tailoring every show to this audience.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay.

[Katt Williams]

And that's how I was able to show my range and show that I was better than my competitors, is that I'm Katt Williams, but I was still doing clean comedy, so I was still going to churches and doing 45 minutes of standup at the church with no curse words, no sex drug material? No, none of that. Just straight standup. And then I was doing everything else, and I. At the regular club, yeah, that was the range. Is that 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.

[Al Michaels]

Thursday Night Football is on, and it's only on Prime Video. This Thursday, the Seattle Seahawks traveled to the Windy City to face the Chicago Bears. Join Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreet and Kaylee Hartung for this exciting matchup. You know, you feel for Bears fans. Just when you think everything could finally go right, it's been a very, very up and down season. But anytime you have the number one overall pick, you will get me to watch no matter what. Coverage begins at 7pm with football's best party TNF tonight, live from Chicago. Not a Prime member? Not a problem. Simply sign up for a 30 day free trial. You can cancel at any time. It's the Seahawks and Bears at 7pm Eastern on Thursday Night Football and it's on Prime Video restrictions apply. See Amazon.com Amazon prime for details.

[Justin Penick]

What's going on everybody? This is Justin Pennock from John Boy Media, the host of the Football Today podcast alongside Bobby Skinner and Chris Rose. We're rolling three times a week on Mondays, on Wednesdays, on Fridays, breaking down everything you need to know about the NFL. We're talking about the MVP race. Is Josh Allen going to pull it out? Lamar Jackson? Can Saquon Barkley even break the rushing record? Can the Steelers keep up their momentum? We talk about everything. We break it down. Stats, analytics. And of course, Chris Rose is bringing his perspective on being a pro in the media world as well. Listen to Football Today on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and you will be glad you did. Hope you could join us for the Postseason run.

[Katt Williams]

For 12 comedy specials.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Is that what set Cat Williams apart? Is your range? Is that you can do a comedy, do 45 minutes in the church. I can go to a comedy club in front of 250 or I can go into arena with 15, 13,000. That's range. Cause everybody can't do that, Cat.

[Katt Williams]

Well, if that's what range is called, then yeah, it's range. But I like the people I'm talking to. You see what I'm saying? So 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 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 going to come after me. They was going to cancel me. They was going to say terrible things about me and try to mess my life up. I said that coming in to stand up. I'm saying it in my heart.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So you knew what it was going to be.

[Katt Williams]

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.

[Shannon Sharpe]

In San Francisco, you joined the nation?

[Katt Williams]

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

[Shannon Sharpe]

You was in Oakland. Did you join the nation? Is that.

[Katt Williams]

Yeah. Minister. Honorable Minister Farrakhan and I have an extremely close relationship. He refers to me as one of his sons. So yeah, I, 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. I went to their religion. I, I, 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, I don't want to hear about the Baptist or the Pentecostal. I want to go to their church and see. And so that was the religious discovery that I was on through that period in my life.

[Shannon Sharpe]

When did you know you were funny?

[Katt Williams]

Probably about 10 years ago.

[Shannon Sharpe]

10 years ago?

[Katt Williams]

Yeah, about 10 years.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So you didn't think, so you didn't think as a child because obviously you said the very structured background, your family was very religious, so obviously you didn't get an opportunity.

[Katt Williams]

And yeah, like, I never did a talent show. I was never any extracurricular activities. I was never any, I was never in band camp. I was never a boy scout like that.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You didn't stay in school long enough to get funny. Cause you dropped.

[Katt Williams]

You understand? You understand? So there was no, like, I don't, I don't tolerate high school games. I didn't go to high school. I don't know how most of the games they think I play, I'm not even aware of them.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But Cat, for you to get on stage. And like I said, a lot of people, like a lot of comedians that I had a few, they're like, okay, you know, I told Joe's to get girls, I told jokes to get people to laugh at someone else. But you is like, you say you did comedy one time in Florida and you had this other opportunity, like in Oklahoma, that they were gonna take you out if you won the talent show, you was gonna go on the road with these well known comedians.

[Katt Williams]

And I did.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But I'm just saying how In Florida at 13, 14 years of age, you like 16, I can do that.

[Katt Williams]

Well, because I knew that There were a lot of other things I could do. Like, when I looked at drug dealers, I thought I could do that.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Katt Williams]

Right. And who doesn't like that?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right?

[Katt Williams]

Huh? I'm trying to figure out how I'm gonna make it, but now that I gotta do it on this side. But no, your question was, when did I think I was. I never was my biggest fan. To this day, I'm not the biggest fan. I'm a fan of comedy. I like great comedians. Like, I like Chappelle. I like Patrice O'Neal. Like, I like the greats of comedy because I do. Like, I like Ron White. I like Bill Engvall. Like, I know comics, like people that did the craft. They raised me. I was touring with Steve Marmel and Richard Jenney, a real journeyman. So my. My comedy upbringing was standard. I thought you had to work all night, every night, all around the country, and you had to write jokes and that you were trying to write jokes that other people weren't writing and that your job was to be funnier. People that know me will tell you I've been on this. Like, I had a list of all the black comedians that were more famous than me. There was 300 of them on the list. And. And I had to be able to cross them all out before I could make it to the next level, before I felt like I was funny enough to do that. And so I appreciate what competition does for sports and for my particular sport, and comedy is a sport.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What gave you the confidence that you could get on stage?

[Katt Williams]

You remember, I was 5 years old on stage, okay? But I was reiterating God's word at that point. Now I just have to make sure that the content is good. If the content is good, what part can I not do? I'm a vessel. He's given me these gifts to be able to do certain things, so I just want to utilize them in my craft, that's all.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Do you remember your first set? How long? Five, ten minutes?

[Katt Williams]

No, no, I think three minutes.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Three minutes?

[Katt Williams]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Standing ovation, boos, some applause, some jeers.

[Katt Williams]

No, none of that. They applauded like, I was a professional at it. But now looking back, I understand, because you gotta understand, they were all thinking, he don't even look old enough to be in here. And we don't have any black guys that live in this town.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right?

[Katt Williams]

Where did he come from? And then he gets up there, and for three minutes, he's talking about the fact that he is the entire black community.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right?

[Katt Williams]

He is as disappointed in them it look like they looking for where the rest of them is, and so is he, and that was his set. But I understood from that point that the truth is really the commodity and the fact that we are all individuals and all separate and all our own islands. But not in real life. In real life, it's only five or six different types of people, and you gonna see them everywhere that you go. And all like. All my enemies all look the same in the eyes, Whether it's Faison, Wanda, Aries, Spears. They all look like, hey, what you.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Gotta give Wanda Sykes? You think I don't remember that, Sir?

[Katt Williams]

Wanda Sykes and Wanda Smith are two separate people. I think Wanda Smith only said one name, sir.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Wanda. Wanda Sykes is amazing. I love Wanda.

[Katt Williams]

And I agree.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I love Wanda.

[Katt Williams]

That's my girl.

[Shannon Sharpe]

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

[Katt Williams]

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 want an Emmy for the city of Atlanta, and this is in 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 about your kids. We won't talk about jail, no cases. We ain't going to talk about none of that.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right?

[Katt Williams]

And immediately gets in there and goes the opposite way. You can't flip up on me because you're an inferior comedian. I. I'm going to destroy you. And I'm never going to call you out of your name. I'm never going to say anything disrespectful to 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 a 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?

[Shannon Sharpe]

You did a number on her, though. Hey, you did a number on it. That's legendary.

[Katt Williams]

No, you either believe in karma or you don't, because I Didn't even know any of the stuff that she had done to my fellow comedians until after. Afterwards. I just know she. That it was a setup.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Katt Williams]

And. 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 there's 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.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You felt she hated you at that moment because you mentioned that she said it was gonna be very professional. Oh, you won an Emmy. 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?

[Katt Williams]

I believe you saw the video and you know that none of that took place. See, the. 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 station. 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'm not here in some subservient position where somebody sent me over you here.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Out of the kindness of your heart. You are.

[Katt Williams]

No, no, I'm saying in the interview.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, yes.

[Katt Williams]

Situations. Yeah. Like. Yeah, yeah. And this person knew I wasn't there for that. Or. Yeah, but how hard.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Because you have to understand she is a female and so you have to be careful. You have to handle her with kid gloves.

[Katt Williams]

Sir, sir, you wanna go ahead and take that out. You don't wanna be against equality, do you?

[Shannon Sharpe]

No, no.

[Katt Williams]

What you just said was very unequal. Sir, I think maybe you've had enough of this because I think I just heard you say.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But can you.

[Katt Williams]

That women are not equal and should be treated unequally and I.

[Shannon Sharpe]

They want to be treated.

[Katt Williams]

You mean as a comedian?

[Shannon Sharpe]

No, no, they want. Listen, you understand and I understand.

[Katt Williams]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

In certain situations they want to be treated equal. Not all situations.

[Katt Williams]

And what part of what you saw her get.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Everything you gave her.

[Katt Williams]

Hold on, hold on. What part would have been different if she was a man? It would have just been more vicious.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, that's my point. That's my point.

[Katt Williams]

I took all the vicious and minimal way 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, right? You've been masquerading that you're a comedian too. And that's the fallacy. So nobody in boxing fights out of their weight class. If you're 130 pounder, you don't just show up with the 160 pounders, you stay in your weight class.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Is that what you wanted to do? No, that she was out of her league when it came to.

[Katt Williams]

I didn't want to do any of it. It.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I know you didn't want to do anything, but once she took it there, you did. You felt that you had to go there. Oh, you. You could have said, wanda, I didn't come here for that. I just want to do the interview. I just want to talk about what happened.

[Katt Williams]

Oh, you misunderstand my job. My, my job is to be funny. 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. 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 is about.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right? Have you ever been bootcamped?

[Katt Williams]

Yes. Yeah, I have.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What was that feeling like? Did it, like, want to give up? Because we don't. I mean, because when you have. I mean, I don't know how early it was in your career. Obviously it hadn't been in the. I don't think it's in the last decade because you've been immaculate.

[Katt Williams]

Have you ever dropped a pass?

[Shannon Sharpe]

I have. I've been booed too.

[Katt Williams]

You know, the little segment between everything is fine and I got it. And then you noticing where it is now. Mm, yeah. It's that the thing about as a comedian, the audience's opinion is the only opinion that matters. Not you, the writer, not none of that. And so I don't think any comedian has ever been booed unnecessarily either. They deserved it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm saying. I'm saying. I'm saying, what do they say when a guy shoots the air ball in the NBA? They say, air ball. And make sure everybody knows. But again, he still got to get back on D, right? Like the game didn't end. He don't get to throw his hands up and sulk.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right?

[Katt Williams]

That's supposed to be used as a learning experience. Most comedians don't get booed enough. I mean, this is how you end up with a Michael Blackson who's a real African doing a fake African accent. Okay, this guy is mad at me. All I did was give him the best advice of his life. Remember, he was wearing dirty dashikis.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Dashikis.

[Katt Williams]

And I told him he needed to dress to be in the position that he's trying to say that he's in. And if you're the African king of comedy, sir, there's actually comedians in Africa doing comedy. If you gonna say that, you gotta go to Africa, Africa, and get a school, dude. Everybody got you. You got to put in some work. And these guys, they take my advice, they change their whole Persona and. And then they hate me for it. And generally, I'm just too big to comment or make a statement about it or do a live or any of that. But when it gets to be a whole grouping of these guys, I gotta come and talk to Shannon. I gotta lay it down at the altar.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You know every comedian.

[Katt Williams]

This is the other side of Kirk Franklin prank. This is the reckoning 2024. The reckoning.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You watch every. You know, every comedian that's been on my show, you know you watched every episode.

[Katt Williams]

Cause, you know, that's not what you said. You said, I know every comedian.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You know every comedian.

[Katt Williams]

You're limiting me.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Oh, you watched every episode because you know things.

[Katt Williams]

You know things that. That's always where I'm trying to come from, whether it's comedic or otherwise. That's why even if you see me get arrested 10 times in a row on TV, as a fan of mine, you can be like, he finna be right out. Yeah, but they just said he didn't do it. He couldn't have. It's stupid. Why would he do something stupid knowing he got to come back and talk to us? Nah, they, they respect that. Every time it happens, I'm gonna be free as a bird. Sitting out here talking to you about it. That it really was what I said it was.

[Shannon Sharpe]

That's all you end up, you come down, you're in la. Yeah, now I'm reading. Cat Williams won Cedric the Entertainer's and Heisel Bush 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.

[Katt Williams]

It's a question that probably should have been asked to Cedric the Entertainer. I'm asking you.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I got you here though.

[Katt Williams]

I know. I couldn't believe Cedric didn't get asked that question. You still a dude's joker to give him an award and then 10 years later you don't know nothing about it. Hey, but I, but I promise you this. What if he sees me again before he sees you? He'll be talking different when you see him. 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 out. But eventually the Lord is going to let me and you be in one hallway. A lot of these dudes go. Kevin Hart done went 25 years without ever being in the same building with me at the same time. I go in the building, he walk out. You've never seen us in the same building ever in 25 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 11 games of basketball with a 20 year old. The record is 92 and 6. This is just in the yard, just to the rack.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Just cause you work out, Cat. I mean. No, you work out, Cat.

[Katt Williams]

Not to the gym.

[Shannon Sharpe]

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

[Katt Williams]

My whole life it was just push ups and sit ups only. I would do like 100 push ups a day. Just.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I thought you were gonna say a thousand.

[Katt Williams]

No, no, no. Because this is literally every day, right? This is not for the. Yeah, for the gram. You know what I mean, like literally 100 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 my. You a golfer now? I've been a golfer for quite some time. My short game is impeccable. I can't get you back but two and some change off of the tee. Off the tee. But I'm still coming in for par, guaranteed.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Are you playing for the tips?

[Katt Williams]

No, I've found that you don't get anything for that. It seems like. It seems very egomaniacal. They go, hey, Kat, for free. You can go further back there for. Wait a minute. Does it still count the same? Hey, I'm up at the ladies tee. Don't tell me my pronouns. On the golf course. I'm, she, her, him, them, and they. Whoever, whoever at the front tee.

[Shannon Sharpe]

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

[Katt Williams]

Nope. Nope. God.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Come on, Kat.

[Katt Williams]

I didn't remember it had happened to you just said it. How can Cedric give you an award that was worth something? Everything Cedric and Rickey Smiley ever been in got canceled for not being funny. Ricky sat here and 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.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Forever.

[Katt Williams]

Just to not be good at what you do, not work hard at what you do, but have to act like you're the best at what you do. It is crazy. It's crazy.

[Shannon Sharpe]

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

[Katt Williams]

That's me. I don't run into none of them. That's what I'm saying. If you're a Faison Love fan, you mean you've been a fan of him for 32 years. You still waiting on him to do his first special. You mean to tell me if Steve Harvey your favorite comedian, you mean you've been waiting for him to do stand up for 15 years now?

[Shannon Sharpe]

I mean, Steve got a lot of other irons.

[Katt Williams]

DL's still out there. None of those irons matter to standup. Who cares that they wrote a plaque card for you to do Family Feud on? Like you're successful because we're surprised you can talk for a living. And it's entertaining that you gonna say some funny country things, but not a writer, right? Not a writer.

[Shannon Sharpe]

How did you develop Money Mike and get it. I mean that. I mean, everybody talk Money Mike.

[Katt Williams]

How.

[Shannon Sharpe]

How did you come up with that and said, you know what? This is how you should dress. This is how he should talk. This is how he should look. This is the kind of whip he should ride. This is how he should talk.

[Katt Williams]

So if you'll remember that that was my first movie, just understand that what I did then, I've done with every single role. Whether it was an Emmy winning role or whether it wasn't, whether I was playing somebody homeless, whether I was playing a dirty vagabond on Atlanta, whether it was an eccentric guy in First Sunday. Regardless of what the role is, the first thing I do is erase me from it, okay? So anything that I would naturally do, that's what I'm not gonna do, because I'm playing a different character.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Playing the character. Okay?

[Katt Williams]

Right. So I then create this person based upon real life circumstances so I don't have to wonder what a pimp thinks, because I've been in that position for a little while. I also worked manual labor for some time in my life, so I don't have a problem paying somebody that works. And I don't have a problem being a go getter, because I'm a go getter. So I bring whatever I can to these characters. I was able to. The first week that I got the script, there was a pimp guy that used to be a pimp, but he wasn't anymore. He was a rapper now and his name was Mac Minister, and he had been a pimp and was getting ready to be a rapper. And I had never done a movie before. I was a stand up and I'm getting ready to do the movie. And so I was able to craft what a real pimp was like, what was too much. I didn't want to be stereotypical. Right. I did the research. I saw how many times people played pimps and they were always. It was always something weird about him, I guess, because it's a weird job. You know what I mean? And I wanted somebody that didn't seem like none of that, that he really thought it was a business and treated it like that. And so, you know, those. Adding those levels to acting is what all actors do if they're not Steve or Cedric or Ricky. Like, you're trying to create a character, you don't. You can't just be in every movie. Like, you just gonna take your shirt off on every movie. Like, why does it say that in your script, man?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Let Big Worm live. Let him breathe, cat. Let Big Worm breathe. Stall him out now.

[Al Michaels]

Thursday Night Football is on, and it's only on Prime Video. This Thursday, the Seattle Seahawks traveled to the Windy City to face the Chicago Bears. Join Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreet and Kaylee Hartung for this exciting matchup. You know you feel for Bears fans just when you think everything could finally go right. It's been a very, very up and down season. But anytime you have the number one overall pick, you will get me to watch no matter what. Coverage begins at 7pm with football's best party, TNF Tonight, live from Chicago. Not a Prime member. Not a problem. Simply sign up for a 30 day free trial. You can cancel at any time. It's the Seahawks and Bears at 7pm Eastern on Thursday Night Football. And it's on Prime Video. Restrictions apply. See Amazon.com Amazon prime for details.

[Justin Penick]

What's going on, everybody? This is Justin Pennock from John Boy Media, the host of the Football Today podcast alongside Bobby Skinner and Chris Rose. We're rolling three times a week, on Mondays, on Wednesdays, on Fridays, breaking down everything you need to know about the NFL. We're talking about the MVP race. Is Josh Allen going to pull it out? Lamar Jackson? Can Saquon Barkley even break the rushing record? Can the Steelers keep up their momentum? We talk about everything. We break it down. Stats, analytics. And of course, Chris Rose is bringing his perspective on being a pro in the media world as well. Listen to Football Today on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast and you will be glad you did. Hope you could join us for the postseason run.

[Katt Williams]

You having an unnatural allegiance to losers does not like you.

[Shannon Sharpe]

No, I ain't got no allegiance to the man. But you gotta admit, the role that he played. Big word, I mean, big perm. And Friday night, you gotta give him credit for the role. Now, come on. Now.

[Katt Williams]

Let me ask you a question.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yes.

[Katt Williams]

If what you're saying is correct, why wasn't he in next Friday or Friday after next?

[Shannon Sharpe]

I mean, his role.

[Katt Williams]

I mean, it wasn't good. Sorry.

[Shannon Sharpe]

There was a lot of people that didn't. That appeared in the first one that weren't in the second one.

[Katt Williams]

Cat, I'm just telling you why. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that it's a news flash. That there are reasons for things in a business.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yes.

[Katt Williams]

Oh, okay. Well, what? You. Why would you. Why did you bench dlo? He had two points. What are you talking about? Shut up. But I like him. Nobody cares about that. That's not what we're talking about. These are business conversations that deal with businessmen.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right?

[Katt Williams]

Right. When you're good at something, you should progress. The guys that are not as good, they should fall down by the wayside. That's natural.

[Shannon Sharpe]

There were the. So you believe if your talent doesn't support it, you should fall by the wayside. And the guys that have the talent and they get elevated, they should move.

[Katt Williams]

No, that's what water says. That's what the universe say. The universe say the levels. No, I don't. Not. I say, who am I? I'm nobody. But I'm working every day as if I think that's what should happen is how it should be. And I'm choosing comedians that also write and work hard and don't steal other people people's material. And I'm making sure that they all make $300,000 a season, and I'm making sure that they're not ever signed to me or my conglomerate, and that's why they're successful. No, you can work with me and still be an independent businessman, boss, owner, like you came in.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Katt Williams]

I don't need you to be subservient to me. That's those other guys that make you pay diversity dudes.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You said earlier that you rewrote a lot of what Money Mike was to say and how he behaved. So they allowed you the freedom, the liberty to ad lib.

[Katt Williams]

How much would they allow you to just make an interception if nobody talk about it? As a football player, if the ball come your way, can you just grab it? Can you make an interception anytime? Are you allowed to pick up any fumble? You can do any hustling, right? Oh, okay. Same here. Same here.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But here's the thing, though. Even as an offensive player, they might let me add lib once I get a couple of years into my breath. They wouldn't let me add lib as a rookie. That was your first movie.

[Katt Williams]

I told you the conversation in my first movie just because I am committed to laughs. The only way I made it past those 300 comedians, I didn't tell you that. What it required is I had to watch all 300 comedians 10 times a piece. I watched your set 10 times of you performing whoever you were, and then I counted how many laughs you got every time you did these amount of minutes. So if you told me this comedian and told me he did 30 minutes, I could tell you that he got 26 laughs in that 30 minutes. Because I had done the numbers on everybody. So I didn't just say I was funnier. I knew I was funnier than the comic you liked. And I could tell you how many jokes funnier I was because that's how we judge. Stand up. You do 15 minutes, I do 15 minutes. How do I know I'm funnier than you? Cause you got six laughs and I got 16. I'm almost three times better than you. Low key boy. Boy. But I'm never going to tell you the formula. So you going to keep just going out there telling jokes now, understanding that I, psychologically, The audience, by 10 years, is convinced that I'm funnier than you. They just don't know why. Cause I'm putting out more content, better.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I had Terry Crews on here. He said at the time that you did the movie, you were homeless. Is that true?

[Katt Williams]

This was my situation. I. Five months prior to me getting this first audition for Friday after next. I got this baby son. I'm holding him up above me. He grabs my little chain. He's playing with it, and he accidentally drops it. It breaks out my front two teeth. I'm in a situation now where when I go to the dentist, they telling me this is gonna cost thousands and thousands of dollars to fix this, right? They not telling me what it's gonna look like. I go get an estimate with no money involved, find out what I need to do. They find out you got a tumor in your upper jaw. So we're gonna have to do a whole surgery for you. It's gonna be a hundred bands. I don't have it. I don't have it.

[Shannon Sharpe]

It.

[Katt Williams]

And I'm only gonna have this check from this movie. So while I'm doing this movie, we live in this trailer. This where we live. So when they come to work at 5 in the morning, we already there. When they leave at night, we still there. We just double back because we understood that this is our one opportunity and we have the this opportunity to change our lives. Just like a young man going for the draft, right? We can actually get in the league with this. There are 30 comedians on this cast. They're all magnificent. This is the holy grail of the situation. So, yeah, I was able to make sure that because it wasn't just my first movie, it was KD Auber's first movie. It was Terry Crews first.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Absolutely.

[Katt Williams]

I was the leader of this group, which meant that we did. We didn't do their rehearsals. They did rehearsal. We did our own rehearsals daily to make sure that we were at the level of professional actors, which is what made it so egregious that guy saying, I was supposed to. You were supposed to what?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Katie did have a good part in the movie, man. The Son of Santa Claus was funny, man.

[Katt Williams]

The dude said the entire time we were filming, I can't play this role. They got a bandana over my nose and my mouth, my thug. They not even gonna know who this is. So, yeah, tell your story.

[Shannon Sharpe]

He's Terry Crews also said that you guys had a lot of, had a lot of conversations that this was your opportunity and you needed to seize this moment.

[Katt Williams]

Terry had the benefit of having been in some very high profile situations already and took Ls like he had been in the league, you know what I mean? He, he had done pro wrestling, he had done a lot of things. He had been televised and some things that happened hadn't worked, right. And this was just fortuitous for him. And now you know what nobody has ever said in the whole industry in 20 years about, you know, the whole money might not getting raped in the bathroom, right? So I understood going in that there's no reason I lost every, for a five year period, every single movie that Kevin Hart did was a movie that had been on my desk that all I had said was just, can we take some of this step and fetch this shit out? And then I can do it. Like, it don't need to be overtly homosexual. Cause I'm not homosexual, right? It doesn't need that to be funny, right? And me saying that and them going, oh yeah, no problem. And then going to give it to this other guy and having him do it just like it was and acting like I'm a bad person because I keep standing on my standard. But yeah, it's, it's interesting, but I wouldn't change it for the world. Like again, I'm, I'm on the winning side of these decisions, you know, Look.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I've had Cube, I've talked to Cube and a lot of people say, cube don't, doesn't pay. What's your relationship with Cube and what did that opportunity mean for you?

[Katt Williams]

Well, the ungrateful bastards that would say anything about Cube's payment. You shouldn't even talk to them anymore. Like, you don't. You don't go to Goodwill. You don't go to a Goodwill thrift store and go, look at all this cheap ass shit. Won't you shut up? Won't you shut up? You could have went to Hermes. Why you didn't go to Balenciaga, why you didn't get a bowl to The Ball, Maine. You want to have that conversation? What, you mean the independent black dude who's filming it partly out of his fucking pocket? What, you mean he didn't pay you enough? They weirdos. Weirdos that felt like they earned the opportunity because they were big. No, no, I understood.

[Shannon Sharpe]

That ain't no $200 million movie. Well, I mean, how much did you expect you was gonna make?

[Katt Williams]

Well, I made enough to get them teeth fixed just like you did. Yeah. So I. It was no harm, no foul. I knew that I was gonna go from there, and there was no.

[Shannon Sharpe]

They was gonna turn it back for Cat Williams.

[Katt Williams]

Well, here's the thing. I wrote it. What I'm saying. I'm saying if I did it and I did a good job at it, you can thank me. I was involved.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Katt Williams]

I'm not gonna come later on and tell you I never even read the whole script. So how you know what role is? What. What do you mean? You never read like. Like these guys. Whole job is to present something, unfortunately. And I'm just not a presenter. If you ask me a question, I'm just going to tell you the truth of how I went.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Would you be willing to do another Friday?

[Katt Williams]

Cube already asked me to write it. I was supposed to have been writing it. That. That's. This is what these guys are mad about. Like, we lost some great people before this movie could come out, regardless. And so, yes, there desperately needs to be one. But we miss John Witherspoon in a way that can't really be quantified, if I'm being honest with you. And the Chris Tucker that we got now is Epstein Island Chris Tucker, not Smokey. If I didn't know no better, I'd tell you. He's the greatest. I don't care what you say. To be confident and not delusional is a real skill. Real. Most of these confident people we see is really deluding.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Well, you don't think. You don't think. They asked Chris Tucker to come back in the second in the sn. In the second Friday, Smokey. Smokey was all smoking. There ain't no Friday without Smokey.

[Katt Williams]

We all agree to that. And there's no next Friday without Friday, and there's no Friday after next. Without.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Nah, we talking about. Because you said that they don't.

[Katt Williams]

Here's the thing. Here's the thing. Chris was allowed to make the decision at the time that this is happening. Katt Williams is known for smoking weed. Willie Nelson is known for smoking weed. Snoop's known for smoking weed. But none of us is really known except Willie. And I'm saying Chris Tucker didn't want to be the poster child for smoking weed. He don't smoke weed like that.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right?

[Katt Williams]

He in the church. He Michael Jackson's best friend. Christmas. Michael Jackson called him Christmas. You ever met a man that gave you a little nickname like that?

[Shannon Sharpe]

No.

[Katt Williams]

Me neither. Must be the greatest man.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I ain't gonna be able to get nobody back. I ain't gonna be able to get no more comedians.

[Katt Williams]

They all gumming.

[Shannon Sharpe]

No, they ain't.

[Katt Williams]

Are you kidding?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Nah.

[Katt Williams]

Hey, I promise.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I think I got all the rest of them. I'd have got the ones.

[Katt Williams]

I promise you. Everybody trying to double back, you're gonna be having to beat them off with a stick. You won't let him. They're coming much as.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You on Def Comedy Jam. Comic View. What were those experiences like? What do you remember most about Def Comedy Jam in college? Comic View.

[Katt Williams]

Comic View was everything. Comic View was really the break. And not Friday after next. Just because Comic view was just 3,000 of your stand up peers. And we just throw sets of all of them up there and we see who the audience likes, who do they like? And it was a great wild, wild west time to be involved in comedy. And the same is true for Def Jam because hip hop was a fad at one time and hip hop ain't gonna last. And why are you doing that? And that's how it was for Blue comedy. If you were a comedian that cussed, you were ridiculed by the mainstream comedy geist. That would be like me being on Joe Rogan. Joe don't want me on there. I need to be on Shannon and Joe. Joe got six comedians that never been funny. He want to push out. But that's really how it is. I'm so sorry. I'm competitive. You an athlete, right? Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Katt Williams]

I can tell you understand.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Will there ever be another comic new Def Comedy Jam? Could that end today in 24, 25, 26? Could we see that again?

[Katt Williams]

They've already announced it. It's already going. You didn't know? Yeah. Kevin Hart purchased it, so he's now doing Comedy View. That happened at the same time that they gave D.C. young fly Hollywood Squares. Yeah. Because they tell you that there's no gatekeepers, but we keep seeing the same people Open the gate. Didn't Kevin open the gate and let Tiffany in? Ain't he now opening it up for don't such and such open the gate. What do you mean? Ain't no gatekeeper There's a hundred gates out here. Everyone I've seen got a keeper.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Would you have wanted to do Comic View or Def Comedy Jam? Would you have wanted to be.

[Katt Williams]

I think we just mentioned I did them both.

[Shannon Sharpe]

No, I'm saying purchase the rights and refranchise it.

[Katt Williams]

Nope, they didn't offer it to me. Anyway, like, Comedy View did a couple disservices to comedy as well. So there were people like me that were out there getting two and three standing ovations in one set, and that wasn't good for television. So what they did was they started making everybody get a standing ovation so they would tell the audience when they get off stage, everybody get up and cheer. And so now the fact that I'm the only one out there going to get standing ovations is now making people think, everybody get a standing ovation. And that's not how comedy is. So I understood why that couldn't go anymore. Because remember Rickey Smiley sat right here and told you a story about how he performed with Mike Epps and Katt Williams when he did Comic View. And to let him tell it, he was funnier than both. My name Lil Dal. You talking about the special needs. That's. Ooh, that's good.

[Shannon Sharpe]

That's a different time.

[Katt Williams]

That's some clever material.

[Shannon Sharpe]

That was a different time, Cat.

[Katt Williams]

No, it wasn't. It was the time I was there. But I'm saying that time, this time, same times.

[Shannon Sharpe]

No, but I'm saying, just like people.

[Katt Williams]

That tell you, the Egyptians, they not black. Egypt is in Africa, folks. As long as Egypt is in Africa, then Egyptians are African.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Do you believe you could tell the same jokes today as when you started out? I mean, Eddie Murphy not telling those jokes. Richard Pryor wouldn't be able to tell those jokes in 2020 that they told in the 70s and the 80s.

[Katt Williams]

So they wouldn't have told them.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But that's my point.

[Katt Williams]

They're not inferior people. No, if they were in this time, they would be going according to our time, just like then we were going according to that. Like, that's how it is in the world. There are words that we can use for a while, and when we use them for a while, until somebody says, that ain't a good word, we should stop saying that.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Correct.

[Katt Williams]

That don't make people feel good and we stop saying the word and we move on to another word. You can't say the R word. You can certainly say special needs. You can certainly say spectrum.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Too slow.

[Katt Williams]

You can, you can. There are things that you can say to get your point, that don't have to hurt people. But you would know that if what you did was construct the English language for a living, then you would understand that part.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You financed your first standup. You had 20. It cost you 22,000. You had 25 to your name. Why did you decide to do that? You believe that much in Cat?

[Katt Williams]

I believe that much in business. In business, the goal is for you to become independent and be the boss. Take the responsibility and also get the profit.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay?

[Katt Williams]

That's all. How can I be looking for you to put me on if I wouldn't? And if I can't show you what you missed out on? Why would you believe me now? The fact that I was able to do it 12 times, that's the real thing. The thing. The part that I'm able to do it all across the country. The fact that every time I do a tour or a special, you think that's sponsored by somebody, somebody did a good job. No, no, just. Just the guy they're kicking around. Just the one that might mentally not be all there. He's the one picking the outfits, writing this guy's material, booking the shows, making sure he gets there. He's the one hiring the other comedians. He's. But hey, I knew that that's the end goal. So if that's the end goal and I'm there when I start, why would I deviate from that?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right?

[Katt Williams]

Remember, I, I, I, I, My goal was to get this far in Hollywood and still have a virgin asshole and never had sucked a penis. That was my only goal. I didn't want to get with a white woman. Cause I was scared she might have me running down the street like Jonathan.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Dad, you gonna think. Come on, Cat.

[Katt Williams]

Not because I didn't like white women. I think white women are as great as any other women. But I'm not gonna act like I'm not scared of them. I have a reason to be scared. You could be Kang the Conqueror and they could take your rabid ass down in two weekends. And that's the truth of the matter. So I stayed away from that. And remember I told you the drug story from when I'm in the park?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Katt Williams]

So these are just the things. I had all of those when I came in. I already was ready for that. That's what they don't like.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I did not know. You're telling me and showing me a side of the business that I didn't know that you guys are, man. The competition, the competitiveness, that's all business.

[Katt Williams]

I don't care if they're selling Coke. You wouldn't believe the things that Coca Cola says about Pepsi. You wouldn't believe the water conversations between Dasani and Liquid Death. Like in all business, in all sport, competition is a driving force. And I don't require anybody to be better, who am I? I just require. If you're a loser and you've taken shortcuts at every chance and you've made sure that you didn't put anybody on that really had a work ethic and was a God fearing person and you helped. If that was never you, then don't act like that's you don't want to get out here. Now that you don't do stand up and start acting like, oh, you not sure why you don't do stand up. I heard you got run off. You better be careful. The nigga that run you off gonna show up and he gonna tell everybody, man. What you gonna be able to say? Nothing. Why you think I speak with such clarity? I'm actually involved in each one of these stories I told you about. Right, right.

[Shannon Sharpe]

The one comedian that we've been sitting here doing this interview that you hold in very high, I regard as Dave Chappelle. Dave Chappelle walked away from 50 million. You said it was more. Tell the story.

[Katt Williams]

That's right.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I'm gonna let you tell it.

[Katt Williams]

No, you're.

[Shannon Sharpe]

No, I want you to tell it.

[Katt Williams]

You really are the best. You're proving it here today. As much as I'm proving it, you proving it. You've proven it. Yeah, that wasn't the thing. It wasn't. People say that he lost $50 million. No, no. That's not even close to what happened to this dude. And until you understand what happened to. To the dude, you don't understand what happened. Like. No, not. They offered him 50 million and he turned it down. Who gonna turn down 50 million now? I've had to turn down $50 million four times. Four times. Just to protect my integrity. And that virgin hole I was telling you about. Right. Cause P. Diddy be wanting the body. 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 can.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Say I'm so grieved, kid. I need another one. Here, get you another one too.

[Katt Williams]

Okay, sir. Thank you.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Come on.

[Katt Williams]

Cause early on you was accusing me of being cat bad. It's crazy.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I mean, but, you know, some of these people.

[Katt Williams]

Martin tried to put Me in my first dress. When he had to go on his hiatus, he tell me, cat, when I come back, I need you. You my young partner. You my brother in comedy. When I come back. Come back, just promised me that my next movie, it'll be me and you. We gonna do it together. We gonna do some buddy cop. I said, martin, you got my word. My go do what you got to do. When you come back, I'm in your movie. Don't trip. I don't need to see the script or nothing. You know, we get in that office and this fool pull out big mama's house too. I almost died and I gotta read this script in front of all these good white people. Where this nigga want me to get an address with him. And I'm literally saying to everybody, why is he in a dress again? You already played the old lady as a FBI agent. We can play anything now. We can be playing a dog catcher this time. Why do we need to be in a dress? And I get so mad, I say, you don't want me. You want Brandon T. Jackson. And that's who they went and got. Twice. I said that. They went and got them. Just like. I'm telling you, I had that other other dudes work. I had all of it. All I did was say, I want to punch it up so it's not offensive to real. And that's how I got in this position.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I sure hope I have a club sh. Shay after this year.

[Katt Williams]

It's gonna be in a dimension it's never been.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, it's gonna be the greatest thing.

[Katt Williams]

Floating in 20 in a whole different realm of business. Oprah coming next. Once I establish this as a place of truth.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Katt Williams]

Oh, yeah. Watch, watch. God's people ain't that few.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Prince. You met Prince.

[Katt Williams]

Prince is a friend of mine. He was a friend of mine.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What was those conversations? Cause he look, I mean, sometimes we don't really understand or appreciate someone until they're gone. I did. I was a big Prince fan. All of this stuff because he could play all the instruments. He could sing, he could dance. He was an entertainer that could sing. And what he wrote. I mean, who thinks of cherry moons? Who thinks it snows in April? Who a raspberry beret, a pink cashmere. The thing, the purple rain, the things that he wrote about like, bro, who. Who mind goes there?

[Katt Williams]

Yeah, he was. He was like any. Unlike anybody in the world. He. He was. He was just an amazing individual. I. I was able to meet him when I was 12 and I knew him my entire life through all of his changes, I was able to assist him many times. If you go look at Prince's car collection, you'll see that Prince don't have not one car. Cat Williams ain't got. He got the Prowler from Friday after next sitting there, he got the same Bentley as me. Like because we share certain things. Our connection was lyrics, musical lyrics, women and cars. And those are the areas where he trusted my opinion on things and that's where I got to be helpful in his life and he was helpful in mine in really all different types of ways, especially about the business. As far as being a black man that was rich in this business at 18 years old, had already did his first million dollar contract, had already broken records, was determined that he didn't want to be like anybody else, was so great of a guitar player that black people just stopped caring about guitar and he got left out on a limb and somehow still had to create his way out of that. He was just really a one in a billion type person. I was lucky to know him.

[Al Michaels]

Thursday Night Football is on and it's only on Prime Video. This Thursday, the Seattle Seahawks traveled to the Windy City to face the Chicago Bears. Join Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreet and Kaylee Hartung for this exciting matchup. You know you feel for Bears fans just when you think everything could finally go right. It's been a very, very up and down season, but anytime you have the number one overall pick, you will get me to watch no matter what. Coverage begins at 7pm with football's best party, TNF tonight live from Chicago. Not a Prime member? Not a problem. Simply sign up for a 30 day free trial. You can cancel at any time. It's the Seahawks and Bears at 7pm Eastern on Thursday Night Football. And it's on Prime Video. Restrictions apply. See Amazon.com Amazon prime for details.

[Justin Penick]

What's going on, everybody? This is Justin Pennock from John Boy Media, the host of the Football Today podcast alongside Bobby Skinner and Chris Rose. We're rolling three times a week on Mondays, on Wednesdays, on Fridays. Breaking down everything you need to know about the NFL. We're talking about the MVP race. Is Josh Allen going to pull it out? Lamar Jackson? Can Saquon Barkley even break the rushing record? Can the Steelers keep up their momentum? We talk about everything. We break it down. Stats, analytics. And of course, Chris Rose is bringing his perspective on being a pro in the media world as well. Listen to football today on the iHeartrade Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and you will be glad you did. Hope you could join us for the postseason run.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Now, there are specials and the streaming, I don't know, I don't think there's as many. And there's no DVDs now. So where, so, so where are you on this, this streaming, the specials? I mean, obviously you still tour, but how much do you focus on? Okay, I'm a tour, say 100 days or 150 days, but I'm gonna do a special.

[Katt Williams]

Well, now that our relationship with Netflix is at the eight figure mark.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Eight?

[Katt Williams]

How, how eight? How often you want to make them?

[Shannon Sharpe]

No, you, you said eight. I mean, like, like five, six, seven, eight.

[Katt Williams]

Gotta be 10 million to qualify. Yeah. So what I'm saying is, once you're at that level, how many would you do? I'd be willing to bet you say, every time you turn around, I'm gonna be doing another one. I think that's what you would say if you was any good.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yes.

[Katt Williams]

And like I said, like I said, With 12 comedy specials, why do I need to be in these conversations with these specialist people? Said ain't got no special. You remember Steve? Ain't got no specials. You remember Ricky? Ain't got no special. You remember Faison? Ain't got no what? So why do y'all get special? Yep. It was 20 minutes long.

[Shannon Sharpe]

It was good, too, though.

[Katt Williams]

It was. He's good. Not. It was good. He's.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, see, he's good.

[Katt Williams]

Don't think because I said something derogatory that I, I don't, I don't know how to hate. Earthquake has consistently. I don't think anybody's ever said Quake wasn't funny. He, he probably never been booed, I don't think, I don't think he's ever given a bad performance. But, but, but his just due was overdue. He was in a whole different situation.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Katt Williams]

Because he wasn't able to translate the stand up to the movie. He took a hit. Most people don't take a hit. They're just judged on their stand up.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Katt Williams]

So, yeah, no, I, I, I. Even though it sounds like there's a lot of people. I don't. That's not the case. I, I am, I'm a proponent of all of us who are in this business working hard, trying to make it.

[Shannon Sharpe]

When you got in the standup, was crossing over, was doing tv, was doing movie. Was that, Was that, that a part of it? You like, okay, I'm doing stand up. Okay, next. Next. The, the Next progression is TV movies throughout.

[Katt Williams]

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, what are you talking about, dude? Yeah. Oh, no, no. 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 Mr. Cooper. Why would you do all of that man's stuff that he did on his show on yours and then do the dude stand up when you go on the road? And then you never put Mark Curry on your show or nothing. Like. Like, if you don't say anything, these dudes will run over you. I don't know if you know how bullies operate.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I do.

[Katt Williams]

If you don't stand up for yourself, there really is nothing they won't do.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right? You're a very generous man, Cat. You. You're the sole sponsor of Melba Moore getting a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. You spot. You did all that on your own? Why? What, do you have a personal relationship with Melba?

[Katt Williams]

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, right? And she just never did that. She wasn't tall enough. She wasn't fine. They didn't like her looks. They didn't like that her hair was natural. They thought, talk 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 it gives me the leeway 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. 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? That's hurtful. What if somebody can't afford their flowers? You mean they don't get them? No. God don't operate like that. He would send a dummy like me to come and take care of that. That just so that the right thing happens. That's how the universe works. Because remember, I don't. What am I spending my money on? I'm not spending my money on strippers. I ain't spending them on drugs. Like, stripper part. Because if I go in. If I go in a strip club, I'm only trying to get her out of there.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Katt Williams]

I have no intention of her or any other people being in this position. If I see a girl I like at the strip club, I'm telling her, 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 got to be a hoe no more.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I only want you to go get your purse.

[Katt Williams]

Just leave it.

[Shannon Sharpe]

We get new id. We get new ID and credit and Social Security card.

[Katt Williams]

We don't need none of that. This life don't look good on you. You don't even look like a drug addict.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Got me thinking. Got me thinking.

[Katt Williams]

Kat, you hear 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 cause they acting like him. You are alpha now. The Alphas all want these subservient husbands. You can't have one.

[Shannon Sharpe]

No, that ain't gonna happen.

[Katt Williams]

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 cue cards, and I'm just gonna keep reading them. Ask your next question.

[Shannon Sharpe]

The Migos, do you help them get out of financial situation?

[Katt Williams]

I don't think we ever, as a nation, can remember a time that the Migos were financially unsuccessful. So for the record, I would assume that they've never needed Katt Williams 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, would I? Of course I would. That's what I do. I'm. 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 gram. It's not. It's not for. It's not for any of that. I'm just doing it because it's good to do.

[Shannon Sharpe]

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.

[Katt Williams]

Say that again.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Comedians would say women would bring the money and not say where it came from.

[Katt Williams]

Right. So I'm not a feminist, like a feminist would be. But I do believe that there are no that in my camp. Like If I had 35 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. Okay, so 10 of these jobs, no man can work because I'd rather a female be there. If I gotta smell anybody's breath, I want it to be hers. I don't want none of you crusty. So what I'm saying is, in a staffing issue, I'm gonna have 75% women just cause 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. He just did a masterful set and nobody's gonna pay him. They just clapping. And I know he's broke as 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, cat. And 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 pay my tithes. If I got paid $100,000 to be at your city, I'm gonna take 10,000 of that and put it in your homeless area. Not cause I got to. Cause you gave me a hundred racks to come to your little rinky dink town, who would I be to not pay my tithes back to your town? That's how I got in this position.

[Shannon Sharpe]

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 to 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.

[Katt Williams]

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.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay.

[Katt Williams]

That God is real.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yes.

[Katt Williams]

Okay. And let's say he be looking at what you do.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yes.

[Katt Williams]

What would he say if you did that?

[Shannon Sharpe]

He said that, Cat, that's a very kind gesture. That's very generous of you.

[Katt Williams]

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 was what I wanted to be God's friend. That's a weird thing. If you a atheist. If you an atheist. 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. And still be God's friend. If I told you that that was my aim, you could understand where I'm at. Like, I promise you, no jealousy, no bitterness, none of that. I got exactly what I was trying to get. I haven't been shorted in any way.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I mean, seven, eight kids, single. You gonna get married.

[Katt Williams]

You remember the conversation where I was. Where it was me?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yes.

[Katt Williams]

And I didn't know what was gonna happen to my two little brothers and it was just gonna be out there.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yes.

[Katt Williams]

So when it gone full circle. And I'm one of those. I'm one of the richest men that ever lived. And I don't. I don't. I don't mean. Please don't look at my net worth. I saw my net worth. I. I had that on me. I swear to God. What I'm saying is like. I'm saying my net worth is less than my last Netflix deal. You understand what I'm telling you?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Think it makes sense.

[Katt Williams]

But I'm fine. Jesus was poor. Jesus ain't had none. So I'm gonna be mad you say I don't have nothing.

[Shannon Sharpe]

They ain't had the amenities they had back then.

[Katt Williams]

Okay, say it again.

[Shannon Sharpe]

We got different amenities now.

[Katt Williams]

Not more than gold. Gold was the amenity of that time. We still got gold. Gold still running.

[Shannon Sharpe]

They have no Rolls Royce. They gotta. You could buy a ass. That's what they call it in the biblical time. They were cheap.

[Katt Williams]

I'M saying if you really. I'm saying a color nan is cheap. So back in the day, I would give my girl a donkey. Today we get her a color nan. But I'm saying whoever. I'm saying whoever. And whatever it is, I'm saying we. I'm saying because what we gonna do? I done already told you, I'm one of the richest people that ever lived.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yes.

[Katt Williams]

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 got to 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. I know how blessed I am if I look at it. I got it. That's. How did he be feeling?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Come on, man, come. So you're not supposed to look at anything that you don't want.

[Katt Williams]

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 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.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What?

[Katt Williams]

Cause see how you tried to ask me something about marriage, but then I.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I ain't say nothing about no marriage.

[Katt Williams]

Yeah, you did. When you rewind the tape, 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 was known as a photographic memory.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Are you.

[Katt Williams]

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 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 to 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.

[Shannon Sharpe]

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

[Katt Williams]

I don't teach anybody anything that's over 18. I've done the work I was going to do, but as kids, I really just tried to teach the things that can't 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, 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. That even if you're doing the greatest thing in the world, there's this thing called no good deed goes 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 than your parents gave you, you know, and so that's how I did.

[Shannon Sharpe]

How do you avoid toxic women? Give me, give me. I mean. I mean. Cause obviously, you know, you like women.

[Katt Williams]

I do, and I probably like toxic ones more than anybody. Just because I asked you this. Hold on. Because toxic women are exciting, and that's just a fact. Part of toxicity is exciting. I'd rather skydive with her. But. But if you have toxic women, just understand that all monsters are feeding off of something. And if you find out what this toxic woman is feeding off of, you can just begin to turn off her feeding points. And it drives a toxic person crazy, and they'll get away from you. So whatever. If she's truly toxic, there are certain things that she's doing that help fuel her toxicity. You're not noticing, but it's what it is. Why do you think she watches murder mysteries before she goes to sleep? Why is it always a crime drama playing and turn it off. Turn it to cartoons. No, no, you don't get to. What's she listening to? You gonna be listening to sexy Red. You toxic people are trying to get things. They're not being toxic for no reason. They're gaining something out of how they operate. That's why they operate like that, because they get something. Soon as you find that out, you'll be able to cut off what they getting and they will leave. Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You were married once?

[Katt Williams]

No. Never.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You weren't married?

[Katt Williams]

Never in life.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So would you have a cohabitation agreement?

[Katt Williams]

Never. How I'm gonna be a single parent and be married?

[Shannon Sharpe]

You could two. You know, there are people that, like, were married and then they get divorced and then they become single parents. That's how that works.

[Katt Williams]

Yeah, but a person who's never been married means he's never been married.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay, okay. I'm gonna take your word for it.

[Katt Williams]

Why would you need to take my word for it? Hold on, hold on. If I had been married, wouldn't somebody have said who she was?

[Shannon Sharpe]

No. It might have been a long time ago.

[Katt Williams]

Nope. I've never not been famous, sir. I've just. I just. I just worked the story out to you. I don't have no hidden mysteries in my life. That was Jesus. I don't have no periods in my life where it's unaccounted for. No, no, no. That person that said that was a liar. I got a case right now in LA, this lady saying she. She was my assistant for 14 years and I hurt her or something like that. Never worked for me, not a day in my life. Liars lie because they want to. But people always say, why would they lie? No, there are several women have said they was married to me. It's just when it went to court, they had to say I was married to him spiritually. You shut up. How you gonna be married to me? My kids don't know you. Answer me that.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So do you have a problem? Do you have a problem bringing women around your kids?

[Katt Williams]

No, not then or now. I've always lived with several women. Like, I've known for several.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, like more than one.

[Katt Williams]

I've already told you that I prefer the company of women to the company of men. So if I told you that me and a couple dudes on my staff sometimes have to cohabitate, nobody finds a problem with that. Yeah. So it's me and three ladies cohabitating, because that's how the business gets done. Like, I don't want a chef that scratches his nuts before he cooks. No disrespect to these guys that go around with these large male only groupings, but that's not my episode of Entourage.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You were approached by seven gunmen. You were robbed. Shot in the thigh.

[Katt Williams]

Say it again.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You were robbed once, correct?

[Katt Williams]

No, I've never been robbed.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You didn't get robbed? You didn't get approached by gunman trying to get robbed? They didn't take anything.

[Katt Williams]

I wasn't even the. I wasn't even the target. I wasn't even who they were talking to. And not because I say that. Because if you look at what time period it is, I'm not even making 5,000 a year. So robbing me wouldn't answer. This is before Oklahoma. You talking about a terrible condition.

[Shannon Sharpe]

They'd have been disappointed thinking they get something up for you, huh? If they'd have robbed you.

[Katt Williams]

Look in three cities there, it's legendary that Cat Williams would walk down our streets with his baby in a baby stroller, with a diaper bag, with a gun in a diaper bag. The only thing I need is a pass. Don't mess with me and just let me go about my business. I'm living in Inglewood, Compton. I'm living on Manchester and Western. I'm in la, the gang capital of the world. But never robbed. Because why? I'm not pretending to be something I'm not. You think I'm a Blood. You think I'm a Crip. I'm from Ohio. I'm a comedian. I'm a father.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Katt Williams]

I'm trying to do something out here. And not only do I not judge what you doing, I'm not trying to be involved.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right?

[Katt Williams]

That's the difference. That's where the respect comes from.

[Shannon Sharpe]

From two. You touring right now? Dark Matters. The Dark Matter tour.

[Katt Williams]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Filming next Netflix special in May. May.

[Katt Williams]

Yep. Next Netflix special.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Oh, you too. Theater in Inglewood. I'm about to catch that.

[Katt Williams]

I thought you might say that.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I'mma catch that one, right?

[Katt Williams]

Because it's a homecoming for me. Because I lived on. I lived on Hazel, so, you know.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I got to catch.

[Katt Williams]

People know I lived in the heart of Inglewood. They saw me walk down Market street with the babies I'm raising. Like they understood that. No, no, I was really not pretending. Oh, he wanted me from the hood. No, I'm living there on the street.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What's your favorite city to tour in?

[Katt Williams]

The next one, sir. Yeah. That's the real beauty of travel, Right? That's why most people don't have the empathy and the sympathy that they need to have for other people is because they haven't seen other people, right? Like, if you went to Ireland and you saw what them people was like, and you went to Sweden and saw what them people was like. If you really went to Africa and you really saw what the people was like, you went to Haiti, you went to Puerto Rico. If you really traveled across the country, you will see that all people is the same way. More people that's good than the up individuals you see. And if you understood that, it would change everything. So I don't. I. I don't have any favorites in the world. Just because every place is dealing with their own issues, their own troubles. All places look better than they actually are for the people that listen. And it's always the difference between what it seems like and what it actually is and what it is like. People will tell you, I went to Paris. I was there at the Eiffel Tower, bitch, you had bed bugs, and there were rats everywhere, and the food was terrible. Tell the rest of it. Don't tell some.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Let me ask you a question. When you go to these cities to tour, do you make it a habit of getting out?

[Katt Williams]

That's how I built my reputation. It's also how I ended up in jail 19 times. Because when I come to do a show, I'm really in your city. So whatever the strip club is, I'm there. Whatever the top bar is, I was there drinking. Whatever the I was up at. You had a casino, I was at it. Like, what was it? Huh? Cause I'm at your city. This is how I'm learning your city. So that when I do my show, I can be talking about what I know, not what I think, right? And so that was what I did at every city that I went to. The first 15 minutes of my show is what it's like to be here. You see what I'm saying? And so that was always a part of what kept my legend going to the point where I can still be in these arenas without you ever seeing a poster with my picture on it, without you ever seeing a flyer, without you ever seeing a post that goes, hey, it's Kat. Could y'all make sure y'all come out and come see me? Cause I'm gonna be. Would you please come on out, guys? I really. Because we have a different respect. I know I'm coming. They know I'm coming. I know they gonna be there, and they know I'm gonna do the best job I can possibly do. And they know beyond a shadow of a doubt whatever hour he was doing when we last saw him, he won't be doing that hour when we see him this time. It's a whole new conversation. And because I've never strayed from that, they've never strayed from their part.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I'm looking at some of the actors that you've been on screen with. Cube, Tracy Morgan, Regina Hall, Terrence Howard, Azar, Lud, Nick Cannon, I mean, Tiffany, I mean, bro. Who brings out the best in Katt Williams? How does someone get the best out of Katt Williams? Do you need a comedian? Do you need a serious actor? How do we get the actors absolute best out of Cat Williams on screen?

[Katt Williams]

Well, I would be disingenuous if I didn't remind us that that's never anybody's goal.

[Al Michaels]

Thursday Night Football is on and it's only on Prime Video. This Thursday, the Seattle Seahawks traveled to the Windy City to face the Chicago Bears. Join Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreet and Kaylee Hartung for this exciting matchup. You know you feel for Bears fans just when you think everything could finally go right. It's been a very, very up and down season. But anytime you have the number one overall pick, you will get me to watch no matter what. Coverage begins at 7pm with football's best party, TNF tonight live from Chicago. Not a Prime member? Not a problem. Simply sign up for a 30 day free trial. You can cancel at any time. It's the Seahawks and Bears at 7pm Eastern on Thursday Night Football. And it's on Prime. Video restrictions apply. See Amazon.com Amazon prime for details.

[Justin Penick]

What's going on everybody? This is Justin Pennik from John Boy Media, the host of the Football Today podcast alongside Bobby Skinner and Chris Rose. We're rolling three times a week on Mondays, on Wednesdays, on Fridays. Breaking down everything you need to know about the NFL. We're talking about the MVP race. Is Josh Allen going to pull it out? Lamar Jackson? Can Saquon Barkley even break the rushing record? Can the Steelers keep up their momentum? We talk about everything. We break it down. Stats, analytics and of course Chris Rose is bringing his perspective on being a pro in the media world as well. Listen to Football Today on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and you will be glad you did. Hope you could join us for the post season run.

[Katt Williams]

It's never anybody's goal to create a great situation for me to do a good job. Why in a script, the Way it works is the script is already there. This is a character in the script. If they give me the job, I make it my job that this character here, this character here has to be as big as this whole project. So if you don't even see the movie School Dance, I want you to remember, whose goddamn white baby is this? And the only way that I can guarantee that you will remember my scene if you didn't remember a whole movie is if I make sure that my scenes are that good. Because that's what I watched. I watched great actors. You never saw De Niro, you never saw Pesci, you never saw any of these dudes in something, you was like, nah, I don't really believe it. You sure you're the Great Gatsby? Like, no, like, you believe that this dude Daniel is a hobbit that's part of the Lord of the Rings, right? You see what I'm saying? And so I, it's having a respect for the craft that I'm doing that means I'm trying to do the best job possible.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What was it like working with Spike Lee? Doing priceless?

[Katt Williams]

Spike Lee is everything that you said I was in my intro. He just really an innovator and a groundbreaking, one of a kind dynamo. And I knew that they were like, they tried to sabotage me even then. Like, as soon as I said I wanted to get Spike Lee to direct it because that was the biggest thing I could do, they immediately gave Spike to Gerard Carmichael and had him do his special too at the Comedy Store. And just to undermine like. But I, I, if there's one thing you can take away from me as a person, whether you like me or you don't, if you take this from me, you will be a better person. If you decide today that you're going to live every day like it's your last for real, which means have a conversation with yourself every night. That, okay, that was it, may not be no more after that. And really count yourself every day like, this could have been it. All right, before I go to bed, this could be it. All right, how's that looking? If you can do that, it'll change your life. You'll really start making decisions and living your life like this all you got, just this one day. But you could be a winner. You could be a winner on this day. It just, it's just work out there and not the work ethic they talk about. They tell you work ethic where they do all these movies. I'm the hardest working man. No, everybody goes to work every day, bro.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right?

[Katt Williams]

Yeah. I'm saying I go to work all the time. Everybody who works goes to work every day. Shut up. Shut up. You get what, you think I respect you more than my gardener? I don't. I don't. He work every day, rain or shine.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I don't know if you saw this, but Taraji P. Henson got extremely emotional the other day. She was giving an interview.

[Katt Williams]

Yes.

[Shannon Sharpe]

And saying that they're vastly underpaid. And say the math is not mathing. They get X amount of dollars by the time Uncle Sam get his cut, by the time the agency get their cut. And what you see they were supposed to get is a fraction of that. Where do you come down on that? Cat?

[Katt Williams]

It was the saddest thing ever. Because imagine. Imagine being in your genre, in your sub niche, whatever it is. Imagine being in your life. Imagine being one of the very top of your lane. That to the point where if they don't take you for the role, there's not three black actresses that they can say are bigger than you that we gonna give this to. Imagine you being at that point and have to humble yourself and say, they're not paying me, y'all. And they not making my pay go up. Cause I'm doing better or nothing. It don't matter to them that I'm famous and people know me or nothing. They wanna pay me exactly what they paying the new girl. And I've been suffering under it for a decade now and just taking it. I just been getting whooped. But I just gotta come say, this is wrong. We should be ashamed. But this is a country where we don't pay the teachers and then we say the kids is the most important thing. You can't have both of them. If you do that, we're gonna end up with a generation that can't read. Guess what? Generation Z and A can't read. Why? Cause who was giving them a book? We gave them an iPad or a phone. And now the letters. Don't mean there's no cursive writing. Sorry about that. So, yeah, this is what period of time it's in? It's the period where the victims get to say, they've been hurting me for a long time. And I just ain't said nothing because I was trying to be strong and I didn't want to shame anybody. When our people call out for help, we gotta understand. You know what I mean? Like. Like we. We. We put too much pressure on Tyler Perry, you know what I mean? He ain't put nobody on the people that been in his productions, they not famous. All of them can walk through the mall without security. Be what you gonna be, but put your people on. If you a gay person and you in there, put some other gay people on. Put some on. Put somebody on. Or don't be wondering why people keep saying gatekeepers. Cause clearly y'all are keeping these gates. Clearly.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Wild N Out. How difficult was it for Nick Cannon to get you on? And what. What was that? What was that experience like?

[Katt Williams]

I've known Nick Cannon since he was a teenager. He had to have in the comedy club, if you're underage, you can't be in a regular club. You have to be in the kitchen, right? So I was the master of the kitchen. Every comedy place. Because I got a child, and my child is back here in this place while I go on stage, right? So I've known Nick Cannon since he was 14. Nick Cannon has never called and asked me to do one single thing. And I turned him down because I've known him since he was a young black child in Hollywood. Wow. So what I did in Wild N Out was to be his protector and to be his voice with hip hop. So the whole thing was the thing that he was trying to do had never been done before. You can't bring six comics in and let six comics talk shit about six rappers, because the six rappers. Rappers will beat the six comics ass, Right? You would have to have a comic that could actually stand in between and go, look, we comics, we gonna say what we gonna say. Y'all gonna take it and understand it's a joke. If you want to fight, we fight before the show. So you can go out there with your black eye. We're not gonna do it comedically. This is what needed to take place in order to be. For it to be successful, which is why it had already aired and didn't work. And then suddenly, when it comes back with me, it suddenly works because respect has to be in there as well. If you trying to do it with Kevin Hart, you and him gonna get run over. You. You. You a teenager, he fire too. Like. Like, what's gonna happen?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Who are some of your favorite young comedians?

[Katt Williams]

I don't. I haven't seen a young comedian I don't like. If you name any of the young comedians, I'm aware of all of them, and they're all doing a great job. It doesn't matter if it's Country Wayne or Desi Banks. It doesn't matter if it's Carlos or Chico. It doesn't matter if it's DC or just hilarious. It really doesn't. It really doesn't matter. Once we go to the young part, the young comedians are dealing with things that we never dealt with. And so that gives them more benefits, but it also gives them more chances of failure. So it's not easier for them. So, yeah, yeah, I'm a big supporter of young comics. We have Miss Pretty Ricky and Takara Williams. I've taken 25 black women on the road in these tours. It's important to me that the young comic gets the benefits and the advantages of the big comics platform.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Matt Rice, Wild N Out recently got canceled. You see Jonathan Major, what he went through, Marvel dropped him. As soon as they're guilty, the conviction came out and you were telling the.

[Katt Williams]

Judge, hey, you saw that black woman come get his charge cut in half. Thank you, Meagan. Good God bless you. Coming to save that slave. If he had to be there by himself, he was getting all folk guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty. She came in there with just so beautiful. They had to knock half of it off. Bless his heart.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Matt Rice, you know, you know him from Wild N Out, he gets canceled for trying to tell.

[Katt Williams]

I never knew him from Wild N Out, to be honest. Okay. I came across him as a new comic.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay.

[Katt Williams]

And, yeah, I'm really just trying to see the comics judge where they are, See? Yeah, right. Go ahead.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So the canceling, what do you think about this cancel culture? You see the situation with Jonathan Major, I mean, for all sense and purposes, I don't know if maybe he can bounce back in a couple of years, but, man, he was hot. He was hot. He was cooking. I mean, you see him in Creed, he's in the Marvel movies. And then just like that.

[Katt Williams]

Maybe I'm a conspiracy theory, but I thought Katt Williams said any time they make you into that position, part of that contract is. You do understand, whenever we wanna take you down, we can, right? Part of giving you the world. First of all, they went around the world for two years straight telling any women that would listen that this was a good looking Negro. Since when? When did y'all start liking a big nose? And when did y'all like a little head and a big jaw?

[Shannon Sharpe]

When?

[Katt Williams]

Since when? That look like my daddy. When you start liking my daddy, you like black people's features like that? If this ugly, ugly nigga is good looking, then all niggas is good looking. Anytime you see them telling you something you can't believe, just understand it's a play and it don't matter. You gonna know it's a play soon as they get in that position and think they gonna tell somebody something. No, you not. No, you're not. Marvel will cancel you, so you won't be allowed to read a comic book. What is you talking about? Get out of here. Get out of here, ugly boy. Yeah, they love fooling the people.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What's your relationship like with Suge Knight? You still close with Suge? Have you spoken to him? Have you talked to him recently?

[Katt Williams]

Yeah, he's doing good. Yeah, he's.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Man, when you a friend, you a friend for life with Cat William.

[Katt Williams]

Yeah. Because the people that come to me are trying to better their life. They're not trying to continue doing what they have been doing.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay.

[Katt Williams]

So when somebody comes to me, male or female, it is in the auspices that this is what I did. This is what I used to do. This ain't what I want to do no more, and I want to do something else, and I'd like it to go a different way.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay?

[Katt Williams]

That's what I offer.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Katt Williams]

So if you come to me under those auspices, then my loyalty is lifelong. Why would it not be Tory Lanez.

[Shannon Sharpe]

And Meg, what was your take on that? Cause I know you got a take on everything. I know you got.

[Katt Williams]

It's a difficult position because somebody's not gonna tell the truth. And the truth has got to be told. In all circumstances, the truth has got to be told. So if you don't want to say she shot her, then you shot her, and that's the end of.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You. Said you never. Have you ever spent time in jail?

[Katt Williams]

30 times.

[Shannon Sharpe]

When you was in there, what was going through your mind? Kat? What did I mean? Some people like, man, I had an opportunity to reflect, and I was like, man, this ain't the place for me. I ain't coming back here when you.

[Katt Williams]

So what? I've never been in jail, and it was my decision to be there. If it's dangerous to be in the hood and you have to have a gun on you for protection, and it's either be judged by six, or, I mean, car judged by 12, or carried by six, I'm always going to have my heater on me. So if you want to tell me that you're going to pull me over 15 times looking for it, I'm going to tell you 15 times, you going to find it. Unfortunately, I smoke cigarettes and weed. If you catch me 15 times, 15 times, I'm going to have it on me. What do you think? I'm in jail Thinking, oh, I don't fuck up. Damn these decisions. I'm not gonna protect my life at all. When I get out of here, it let them do what they want to do to me. No, no. When I'm in there, I'm fine. And I'm understanding that I'm put here for a reason. And the people that get Joy off me being in here are really gonna look stupid because I'm finna be free. Because you gotta be setting this up. I'm never anywhere to get anything. You don't know. I just made $300,000 in your city. That's why you think I might be out here as a ne'er do. Well, you think he's smoking weed? Yeah, he's got a medical license for it. He needs it. It's his only medication. Do you mind if he takes it? It helps him eat. Cause he does 19, 100 city tours flying across the line. And so he doesn't get hungry on the regular, he doesn't get sleepy at night. He's got to literally put himself to sleep. He's literally got to make himself eat. So this marijuana helps him do both of those things.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Marijuana help you sleep?

[Katt Williams]

Oh, yeah. Because remember, remember, as a comedian, what you're doing is against your natural timeline. Your natural timeline wouldn't be that you would start your work day at 8:00pm Right? And then your work day is over at 2:30am like, that's a weird yes. Right? So to tell your body, now that we're pumped up on endorphins, now, let's go to sleep at 3. It don't work like that. Your body has to try to get a whole new schedule. So, you know, it suffered, but that's what worked for me. I consistently used it. I told people all across the country, don't worry, this will be legal in our country. As soon as they find out how to charge taxes for it, we will be legal in this country. Do they view me as some sort of visionary for my forward think? No. You own drugs. That's what I heard.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But how have you been? I mean, bro, every time they try to put you down, they try to put you to the back, you bounce up, you move right back to the front. I mean, you like a Super bowl, you just keep bouncing and you bounce higher.

[Katt Williams]

Trampoline skin is something that you ask God for. When I watched you play football, you had it. There's some people that there's really no such thing as hitting Shannon Sharp so hard that he don't want to run the ball the next play, right?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Absolutely.

[Katt Williams]

And if that's your only goal, is to hit him so hard that he don't want to be him no more, you just out of luck.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, you wasting your time.

[Katt Williams]

There's no. Your coach can't help you. Ain't no pep talk going to help you. Don't matter about the uniform, your cheerleading. None of that matters. If it ever gets to Mano Imano, may the best man win. And if you've been living your entire life trying to be the best man that you can for yourself, then you should feel great about those odds.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What do you think about Kanye, Rance? 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 suspect is going on?

[Katt Williams]

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? Wouldn't you go, whoo, this guy? Because, I mean, what are we reacting to? What are we reacting to? You're the one that put him in a position where he thought he was God and could call himself Yeezus. And you the one told a 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 what?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Oh, Lord.

[Katt Williams]

I didn't mean it like that. I mean, married her because she was one. Not. He didn't know. He understood that. He wanted that. He courted that. That's what he wanted to base his family on.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But maybe she's got a good heart, though. I know what you're gonna say. Don't you say it, Kat. Don't you say it. I'm gonna move the conversation.

[Katt Williams]

If what I'm saying is not correct, then how does she end up with Pete Davis? Listen.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I mean, it happens all the time.

[Katt Williams]

And what if you weren't even good enough for Pete and he leaves you? What do that mean? The product was. No, I don't. 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 agree With. Okay. 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 drum. This. This dude started a church and kept cussing. Nobody in black church says nothing. You would have thought all the pastors would have came. You can't be no gospel artist. You just said that, bitch. Nobody said nothing. Cause TD Jake's over there with Pete in it.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Like, come on, Cat.

[Katt Williams]

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.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I. I did see it was trending though, but I ain't know. I. I don't. I don't. I ain't know why I can't. I don't. Let me go to this question right here.

[Katt Williams]

This question. All people that love the truth got to be happy. If the truth coming out and lies is getting exposed, that's just what time it is. 2024, folks.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Are you related to Luda?

[Katt Williams]

No. So there was a crossroads where we were both invited to an Illuminati thing. And it had to be one or the other of us and decisions had to be made. So it was both of us. We were equal. One of us had to cut off all their hair and couldn't do the sideburn thing no more with the points. And the next person they said was going to get $200 million because they were going to pay him 10 million a movie to do 20 movies. And that's how the conversation happened. One of those persons turned out to be Ludacris. And the other person turned out to be Cat William. Now, one person ended up with a light skinned, ugly faced wife. That's never done a. Remember I told you that if I say that it applied to seven people. Yes. It's part of what they give you. Okay, I didn't get it. I'm not mad about it.

[Shannon Sharpe]

How much money did they give? 200, sir.

[Katt Williams]

Fast and Furious is on what number right now? 10.

[Shannon Sharpe]

10. 200 men. I might need to get me one of the more women look the same.

[Katt Williams]

That's what they all end up saying at the end of the day. Kevin told you he wasn't gonna wear no dress until they offered him the dress and then he put it on. And what did he say after he wore it? I made my own decision. Duh. But you didn't make it before they brought it up, did you? It's okay. All right.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You have a lot of politics.

[Katt Williams]

Never Talk about it. I'm not that controversial.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Where are we? Where are we headed?

[Katt Williams]

Cat, this is sad. This. We've never been here before. We've never been at the point where neither option is good for us in real life. No, this is a different conversation. This is. Would you rather go back with your ex or would you rather go back with the person before them?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Both bad.

[Katt Williams]

Both bad options. Like one guy. One guy can barely put his sentences together and the other guy will put sentences together from whatever he's read or whoever told him like. But how do we get.

[Shannon Sharpe]

How do we get here? How do we get here?

[Katt Williams]

All division, dividends. There's no way around that. All division divides politics. Even in the beginning, when our constitution was drawn up, the two parties was not what they had in mind. They always thought that it would be too Maine and another independent party. They always assumed the Independent party would be just as strong as the others. A lot of that just didn't happen. And that's what I've learned more from comedy is that Republicans laugh at the exact same thing that Democrats laugh at. As long as I'm talking to Democrats, I can make them laugh for one hour straight about what Republicans do. By the same token, I can go talk to Republicans for one whole hour and have them dying about the stuff that Democrats do. But at the end of the day, who does that? Yeah, your team got an offense and a defense. They not supposed to be enemies. The enemy is the other side. Well, you can't do politics like that.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Nope.

[Katt Williams]

It's not good for the country, man.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You see this Mark Zuckerberg building, this $270 million bunker?

[Katt Williams]

If you have a billion dollars, we have learned that you can do whatever you want to do. When Elon Musk was to send space, things in space, he don't have to ask nobody's permission. Congress don't meet, Senate don't meet no police department. Gotta be warned. He don't need a permit, none of that. If you got a billion dollars, you do what you wanna do and then you tell them what you did. And that's how it go.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What he building about a $270 million bunker? What do you know that we don't know?

[Katt Williams]

Cat Kim Jong Un. I don't know what you don't know. Do you understand that people that are not very bright are in charge of nuclear bombs all across the country? That's what he knows. He knows that 30% of all weapons systems are running off regular WI fi. So what does that mean? That means if a Solar flare or a meteor hits. Either one of those knows literally a bomb can go off just because the system accidentally got turned off. Yeah, that's what he knows. The people that are in power know that the people that are running the most complicated and deadliest things on the planet are just an average idiot. And you know lots of idiots.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I do.

[Katt Williams]

Yep. And these. These people are not special. Back in the day, they were.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Katt Williams]

Not today. Not today.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You say you smoke a little weed. You don't smoke with Snoop?

[Katt Williams]

Yeah, I'm actually a bigger smoker than Snoop. He. He'll tell you that. But I don't like. I don't mix anything with my weed. I just do weed. Right. So. No. Yeah. Nobody has that minimum.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I mean, you got.

[Katt Williams]

Nobody has. Nobody does 20 blunts a day. Like me for 30 years. Like, I was the first person to have a weed roller. Like somebody whose job it was like, I haven't rolled a blunt in 20 years. You probably like, if you go. I'm saying, I prefer the saliva of layers.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Oh, my goodness.

[Katt Williams]

No, no. Understand what I'm saying. If for a blunt, it's necessary for it to get lit. Right. And so if you had spent 20 years smoking with dudes, that's a lot of male saliva that you would have just accidentally ingested. I. I can't.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But if I done killed, I can't.

[Katt Williams]

Be this specimen on that. It takes the saliva of nice ladies on that. But, yeah, I'm a. Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Katt Williams]

That's all I do. That's just.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Do you consider yourself a king of comedy?

[Katt Williams]

No, they. They consider that, like. Like when. After Bernie left them. Same three guys I'm telling you about the kings. Yeah, right. Cause DL is the greatest. No, DL. Slander gets tolerated. But they came to me. I was supposed to be the fourth king. I got the offer.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Then what happened?

[Katt Williams]

But I turned it down.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Why?

[Katt Williams]

Because you shit on Bernie and I know the truth. You think I'm gonna let 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 was supposed to go last is cause it was your tour. Tell the truth. It was Steve's tour. Not. It was gonna be called the Kings of Comedy. It was Steve's tour. These are the guys opening for him. Of course you gotta close if it's your tour. That's why it was such a big deal. But you couldn't do it. Cause you can't beat the Best. And until you humble yourself, you will forever be kingd by the King. And because you finally did it. Cause you had no other choice. And now that he gone, you gonna act 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 were black and ugly and you were good looking and he couldn't make it cuz you did. And that ain't the way comedy work. The king 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?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Can't wait you. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for coming on, bro. I really appreciate that. Thanks for sharing.

[Katt Williams]

Thank you.

[Shannon Sharpe]

The stories, setting the record straight. Now you know they gonna double back.

[Katt Williams]

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. I wasn't tearing down others to boost myself up. But I do have to acknowledge things that did not take place. Like we are 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 they favorites and they group and they click.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right?

[Katt Williams]

But that happens in 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 them to the point where they don't even compete anymore. So how you gonna let a dude that been on the bench for 15 years? I would have beat Jordan's ass. Shut up. Jordan is still alive. We'll call Jordan right now. You can't beat him now. Not then. You can't beat him now, Right?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Cat Williams.

[Katt Williams]

Shannon Sharp.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Appreciate you, bro.

[Katt Williams]

Appreciate you. All my life Been grinding all my life Sacrifice, hustle, paid the price want a slice, got to roll a dice that's why all my life I've been grinding all my life all my life Been grinding all my life Sacrifice, hustle, baby, the price, want a slice, got the rolling dice and swap all my life I've been grinding all my life.

[Justin Penick]

What'S up, everyone? It's Justin Penic from John Boy Media, the host of the Football Today podcast with Bobby Skinner and Chris Rose. We roll three times a week. On Mondays, on Wednesdays, on Fridays. Breaking down everything you need to know about the NFL. We're gearing up for the NFL playoffs. I hope you can join us. Join in with us three times a week. Listen to Football Today on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast and you will be glad you did.