Tales from the Club

Summary

ReLiving Single Podcast: Episode Summary – "Tales from the Club"

Podcast Information:

• Title: ReLiving Single
• Host: Erika Alexander and Kim Coles
• Episode: Tales from the Club
• Release Date: June 18, 2025

---

Introduction

In the episode titled "Tales from the Club," hosts Erika Alexander and Kim Coles delve deep into one of the iconic episodes of the beloved sitcom Living Single. They share personal anecdotes, behind-the-scenes insights, and thoughtful analyses that resonate with both longtime fans and newcomers to the series.

---

Initial Reactions and Reflections

Erika Alexander begins by candidly discussing her initial impressions of the episode:

Erika Alexander [01:31]: "People do 10 or 13, and we did 27, and it was the first season, so we were still finding our way."

However, she admits to having reservations about this particular installment:

Erika Alexander [01:48]: "I'm gonna just give y' all a truth bomb and sorry, you can send me the letters, but I didn't really dig, dig this episode."

Kim Coles probes further:

Kim Coles [01:51]: "Why did you not like this episode? Why didn't you dig it?"

Erika likens the episode to the "freshman 15," suggesting it felt somewhat unnecessary:

Erika Alexander [02:00]: "I consider this basically a little flabby. Like, if they cut the fat off this season, they could have cut this and I wouldn't have missed it."

Despite her initial critique, Erika acknowledges the episode's enduring popularity, particularly Goldie's character:

Erika Alexander [02:43]: "People love Goldie and his tooth, so it don't matter what I thought, they still dug it."

---

Analysis of "Great Expectations" Episode

The hosts discuss "Great Expectations," where the characters visit a nightclub in search of love but encounter various comedic mishaps. Kim highlights the episode's continual movement and dance sequences:

Kim Coles [03:40]: "There's so much. Let's talk. Let's have a moment for Regine and her whip appeal ponytail."

They explore character dynamics, particularly Khadijah's selective dating and Regine's competitiveness:

Erika Alexander [15:10]: "Khadijah is the picky one. Max is the gold tooth magnet. Regine is trying to get rid of all of those dresses."

---

Behind-the-Scenes Insights

One of the significant topics covered is the casting of Goldie:

Kim Coles [22:18]: "Yeah. Because we were in our first season, because it was sort of new. It wasn't new. This is our sixth episode, right?"

They reveal that Eddie Griffith was the original Goldie but was replaced by Miguel Nunez due to differences in comedic styles:

Kim Coles [24:03]: "And so, you know, making the transition from comedian to ensemble is a thing. Not everybody does it all at once."

Erika adds context about the challenges comedians face when transitioning to sitcom roles:

Erika Alexander [24:29]: "At the first season, sixth episode. That's not a lot."

They commend Eddie Griffith's talents but explain the production's preference for scripted delivery over improvisation.

---

The '90s Comedy and Club Scene

The conversation shifts to the broader landscape of the '90s comedy scene, emphasizing the rise of Black comedians and the male-dominated, predominantly white club environments. Kim reminisces about performing at the Limelight, a converted church in Manhattan:

Kim Coles [30:37]: "We did a comedy night there once… getting to these places was what was dangerous."

Erika and Kim discuss the intersection of comedy clubs and Nightlife, highlighting how these venues were platforms for burgeoning talents like Eddie Murphy and future icons such as Wanda Sykes.

---

Fashion and Cultural Reflections

A significant portion of the episode reflects on '90s fashion trends showcased in Living Single. The hosts reminisce about brands like FUBU, Adidas, and Cazales, noting how Black culture influenced mainstream fashion:

Kim Coles [38:12]: "It's so good. Right. Sturdy, wonderful, you know, dungarees…"

They humorously recount their beauty routines, including the extensive use of Vaseline and perm maintenance:

Erika Alexander [40:23]: "We put it everywhere… Ready for the Pepeto Bismol look."

---

Personal Anecdotes and Performances

Kim shares her experience choreographing dance routines for the show with Milo Lavelle, who has worked with legends like Michael Jackson and Diana Ross:

Kim Coles [15:23]: "He created such incredible community… So you have to be really good to teach someone how to dance really bad."

Erika reveals her brief stint in the music industry as part of a rap group called "The Players," aiming to diversify her acting credentials:

Erika Alexander [42:11]: "Our album was gonna be called Payback's a Bitch."

---

Listener Q&A: Character Ages and Achievements

The episode features a listener's question regarding the characters' seemingly advanced achievements in their early twenties:

Listener Nicole M. [43:41]: "The characters are all in their 20s, but they seem to have achieved a lot by their ages. What was the motivation for this?"

Erika and Kim discuss the creative decisions behind character development, suggesting that characters like Max were intentionally portrayed as exceptionally ambitious:

Erika Alexander [44:22]: "Max was 23, but... she was pretty. A really great student… pushed along."

They reflect on their own early accomplishments, attributing their success to drive, community, and seizing opportunities.

---

Reverb: Reflecting on Episode Themes and Cultural Echoes

In the reverb section, Erika and Kim draw parallels between the '90s club scene and today's social dynamics. They critique modern Generation Z behaviors, contrasting them with the proactive, in-person interactions of the past:

Erika Alexander [36:35]: "Generation Relaxed… they’re looking and scrolling their phone…"

They encourage listeners to embrace active social engagement and utilize contemporary tools for creativity and entrepreneurship:

Kim Coles [49:36]: "If you have the ideas and ambition, there are ways to get yourself up and rolling aside."

Erika emphasizes the importance of internal motivation and leveraging available resources to create opportunities:

Erika Alexander [49:46]: "It comes from within… manage your expectations and make use of what you have."

---

Conclusion

The "Tales from the Club" episode of ReLiving Single offers a rich blend of nostalgia, personal stories, and insightful analyses. Erika and Kim effectively bridge the gap between the original Living Single and its contemporary resurgence, providing listeners with both entertainment and valuable reflections on life's evolving social landscapes.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Erika Alexander [02:00]: "I consider this basically a little flabby. Like, if they cut the fat off this season, they could have cut this and I wouldn't have missed it."
• Erika Alexander [03:43]: "Yeah, he had a quote when he didn't think that, you know, everything was up to snuff. He'd say, 'Look at that girl shake her thing. We can't all be Martin Luther King.'"
• Kim Coles [15:23]: "So a guy named Milo Lavelle… he created such incredible community."
• Erika Alexander [42:11]: "We had a demo deal. We did. Wow. Yeah, we rapped."
• Listener Nicole M. [43:41]: "The characters are all in their 20s, but they seem to have achieved a lot by their ages. What was the motivation for this?"

---

Credits:

Hosts: Erika Alexander and Kim Coles
Senior Producer: Amber Watson
Associate Producer: Kenny Jackson
Sound Engineers: Eric Hicks and Cedric Wilson
Production Supervision: Razak Boykin
Additional Production Support: Alex Atkins and Z. Taylor
Special Thanks: Dr. E.J. Johnson

---

Stay Connected:

For more episodes and updates, follow ReLiving Single on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major social platforms. Join the conversation and share your thoughts with Erika and Kim at RelivingSinglePodcast.com.

Transcript

[Erica Alexander]

Oh.

[Kim Coles]

In my 20s, I was out at the comedy clubs and nightclubs until 2, 3, 4 o' clock in the morning.

[Amber Watson]

Yeah.

[Erica Alexander]

My Saturday nights were dreary, like Cinderella. I had to stay in and scrub. Yeah. Hang the clothes out to dry. You know, pick and pound the wheat for porridge. I am not kidding. I worked on Saturday nights. I don't think I did anything a normal young adult did. Oh, yeah. When I was growing up. Wow. God, I need therapy. Are you concerned about me?

[Kim Coles]

I am very concerned. Woo, woo, woo. By the way. Woo, woo, woo.

[Erica Alexander]

Thank you. Welcome back to Reliving Single, the official unofficial Living Single rewatch podcast.

[Kim Coles]

Thank you all so much for tuning in and watching and listening and for all your comments and for all your true blue questions. So just appreciate y' all so much. Keep subscribing. Tell all your friends about it. How does it feel doing this experience?

[Erica Alexander]

Well, this is the sixth episode, and when we're doing the show itself, the first season, we did 27 episodes. That's, like, unheard of, by the way.

[Kim Coles]

Yeah, yeah.

[Erica Alexander]

People do 10 or 13, and we did 27, and it was the first season, so we were still finding our way. You know, for this episode that we're gonna talk about, I'm gonna just give y' all a truth bomb and sorry, you can send me the letters, but I didn't really dig, dig this episode.

[Kim Coles]

Why did you not like this episode? Why didn't you dig it?

[Erica Alexander]

Well, you know, I call it like, you know, this was like the freshman 15. You remember the freshman 15 is when you go to.

[Kim Coles]

When you gained 15 pounds when you first go to college. Yeah.

[Erica Alexander]

I consider this basically a little flabby. Like, if they cut the fat off this season, they could have cut this and I wouldn't have missed it. It wasn't. Had nothing to do with the acting or anything. It's just that I think that Yvette had to prove that this was a dating show still and that there were going to be episodes that were, you.

[Kim Coles]

Know, just centered around us going out and dating and meeting men. Yeah, but Khadijah was about mackin' right?

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah, she's macking. And, you know, that felt a little bit flat for me. And maybe that speaks to who I was. I wasn't a person that dated. And so I kind of slept. Walked through this, you know, and that said, you know, by the way, people love Goldie and his tooth, so it don't matter what I thought, they still dug it. They really did. Yeah. But for me, that's How I remember this one.

[Kim Coles]

Okay. When you watch it now, do you still feel that way or have you embraced it more?

[Erica Alexander]

Okay, so, yeah, you know, like we're kind of in a way watching these for the first time.

[Kim Coles]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Erica Alexander]

You know, especially that we took 30 years. And I have to say, I actually didn't see. I thought it was fun. I thought it was fun, you know, and I see why. I think that whatever young person I was in, the 23 year old person I was then, didn't allow herself too much time for dating and fun. And so that's when I was sort of just like, man, we got to do something where we go to a club, some go to, you know, action and jokes. But looking back, it's actually really funny.

[Kim Coles]

It's also the reality of what I think our audience was going through at the time and they could. That's why it's such a favorite. Cause people resonate with it. And as you all watch this episode, one of the things, and I'm sure we'll talk about it when we have time, is the movement that happens throughout this entire episode. We're dancing and moving the whole time.

[Erica Alexander]

So can I quote Julian Bond?

[Kim Coles]

Yes, go right ahead.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah, he had a quote when he didn't think that, you know, everything was up to snuff. He'd say, mm, look at that girl shake her thing. We can't all be Martin Luther King.

[Kim Coles]

That's what he said. And that's what you think about the song.

[Erica Alexander]

That's what I said. You know, they can't all be the ones.

[Kim Coles]

Right, right.

[Erica Alexander]

And this one happens to be a good one, even if I didn't think so then.

[Kim Coles]

Okay, thank you for your honesty. Well, submit it for your approval. Living Single Season 1, Episode 6 Great Expectations so the girls visit a local nightclub in search of their dream men, but find only nightmares. And then there's a B story happening along the lines. The men are also trying to get in the club, which hysterical. We have Miguel Nunez as Goldie. Also, you know, he's well known for Joanna, man. He is.

[Erica Alexander]

And life.

[Kim Coles]

Right, right. Yes.

[Erica Alexander]

He's a fantastic actor and he's American. Dominican.

[Kim Coles]

Yeah, Dominican. And I didn't know that about him because I was like, where's the Nunez from? But that's where.

[Erica Alexander]

Yes.

[Kim Coles]

Also I'm loving him in the show family business. Loving him on that episode. So shout out to all of our Latino Latinx, porsu ayuda. Gracias to all the above.

[Erica Alexander]

We were in Latino household so we have to give them A shout out. Thank you. Poof.

[Kim Coles]

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[Kim Coles]

It's time for the rewind where we watch and relive living single with you.

[Erica Alexander]

This is pathetic. I mean, no dates, no plans, no men. We gotta get out. I'm talking about getting in the mix, Mackin. You know what I'm saying? Getting with some men, not just hanging out with the girls. Regenerative. Hell, you always hooked into something. Tell us what's going on tonight.

[Kim Coles]

Well, if you're very, very nice to me, I could get you on the guest list tonight at Club Xena. It's Saturday night and the crew is in the house again. And Khadijah is fed up. And she asks Regine what to do since she's always out and about. And Regine gets them on the list of the hottest club in town. Club. I guess where we met folks was out in the club.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah. No, and that sets us up. I mean, you know, when we were younger, we were analog kids, you know what I'm saying? We had to go out and meet people. You had to. So, you know, being bored was a whole other definition. Nowadays people say they're bored. I look at them like, how.

[Kim Coles]

How could you be bored if you could be bored?

[Erica Alexander]

If anything, you're overstimulated. If you calm down a little bit, you might find out. You might remember who you are and what you're on this earth to do.

[Kim Coles]

Right. Learn who you are or remember it.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah, but then you really had to go out to mix and mingle.

[Kim Coles]

And it was fun to go out. The clubs were fun.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah.

[Kim Coles]

And dancing was fun. And you know, here's the other thing too. I feel like growing up in New York and going out there kind of were not as many rules. Like you didn't wait for some guy to ask you to dance. You would just go on the dance floor and just dance and grab your girlfriends and just dance and just be. I feel like it was much easier. There were less rules in that. In that way. You didn't take your word for it. Okay, good. Because you were busy scrubbing and making por.

[Erica Alexander]

Porridge. Making porridge.

[Kim Coles]

So let's watch some more. Ain't none of us going to get no action if you don't hurry up. All right, all right. So what do you think of this outfit?

[Erica Alexander]

That's the one.

[Kim Coles]

I concur.

[Erica Alexander]

That's good.

[Kim Coles]

I better change. Honestly, I don't know anybody that Puts that much effort into getting ready. I am everything.

[Erica Alexander]

Everything is me. Damn, I am a good looking man. Come on, Kyle. Quit hogging up the bathroom. Perfection takes time, my brother. Wow.

[Kim Coles]

So this is.

[Erica Alexander]

So that's what's up.

[Kim Coles]

And I love that at the same time, the guys are getting ready and we're getting ready. And we see that Regine is much like Kyle. Much like Kyle. Like I'm, you know, primping and carrying on and. That voice. That voice.

[Erica Alexander]

Yes.

[Kim Coles]

This is the first time we hear him sing too, isn't it?

[Erica Alexander]

Oh, that's true. He's hilarious. He's singing up in that falsetto.

[Kim Coles]

I love it.

[Erica Alexander]

Yes, child. He must be peaches and herb at the same time. My God. It's all about the drip.

[Kim Coles]

Yeah.

[Erica Alexander]

I mean, come on.

[Kim Coles]

And the shaving of the legs. Hello. Just like a moment for me. Shaving my legs.

[Erica Alexander]

Yes. You really had to get up into the deep parts too.

[Kim Coles]

I did. Yeah, that's right.

[Erica Alexander]

You can't take too much down there. I want to just word to the mother. There's a reason why that hair is supposed to be on the under parts.

[Kim Coles]

Do you know why?

[Erica Alexander]

Because it gets stuck together like gummy bears and crisscross. And if you go to the bathroom, your piece shoots out to the left. I'm not even kidding you.

[Kim Coles]

The first time I got a wax, like everything down off. Down there, my pee went. It's for directional purposes.

[Erica Alexander]

That's friction, man.

[Kim Coles]

People don't know that. You don't know that reason. Not to mention, it's also a visual in case your mate doesn't know where to go. I think humans, as we develop like a landing strip. It's a landing strip. Homing pigeon.

[Erica Alexander]

Right? Yeah, right, right. You're right. Wow. We just, you know, we gave them the keys to the kingdom with this. Absolutely. And that's the difference between how men and women get dressed right now. Because we thought that the women or you know, it's. They're. They've got to be, I guess, taking a long time. And the men must be going quicker.

[Kim Coles]

No, they're not. TC is up there crimping and prodding and making himself look wonderful.

[Erica Alexander]

Yes.

[Kim Coles]

I think TC and singing to himself and bigging himself up. Cause he knows he's gonna go to the club and knack. So.

[Erica Alexander]

Yes. TC is like the Lola Fulana of getting dressed. He was a showgirl. I mean, you know what I mean? Remember Lola Falana?

[Kim Coles]

Please. One of the sexiest, most amazing.

[Erica Alexander]

Come on.

[Kim Coles]

And I. Yeah. I used to love Watching her as a little girl, like, she's stunning and talented and sexy and all the things love, love shout out to Falana.

[Erica Alexander]

But it was a thing when you got dressed, we actually met, made, I think, the end. The. That we made an effort.

[Kim Coles]

Oh, absolutely. You pulled things up and pushed things down and moved things around and perfume everywhere. And you, you know, and created landing.

[Erica Alexander]

Strips all over the place of deliciousness. Come on, kids.

[Kim Coles]

Your breath had to smell fresh because, you know, it's so loud in the club. You got to talk, you know, really close to someone. Yes, that was a big deal.

[Erica Alexander]

That's right. Yeah, that's exactly right. Wow.

[Kim Coles]

Wow.

[Erica Alexander]

Girl, I've been waiting on you all night.

[Kim Coles]

No, baby, maybe later, okay? Look, Khadijah, he was cute. He had on makeup.

[Erica Alexander]

What about that guy who wanted to.

[Kim Coles]

Buy you a drink?

[Erica Alexander]

He needed some makeup.

[Kim Coles]

Max, girl, you didn't introduce me to your man.

[Erica Alexander]

I thought you said your name was Shaquille. Well, Max is my nickname. Can I call you that? No. You trying to play hard to get, I see. Hey, hey, hey, hey. That's a very nice dress you got. And it's popular, too. There's a blonde over there, got one on just like you.

[Kim Coles]

Will excuse me, won't you? Shaquan, you ain't drinking this, right?

[Erica Alexander]

You know, your eyes are speaking to me from across the room.

[Kim Coles]

And you didn't understand. Go away. Where are the men?

[Erica Alexander]

The crew is at the club.

[Kim Coles]

The crew is at the club.

[Erica Alexander]

The club is at the crew.

[Kim Coles]

Listen, we're doing so. There's so much. Let's talk. Let's have a moment for Regine and her whip appeal ponytail. And I love the track of all the dresses. This is my one, one of a kind dress. And you find out. Oh, no, it is not one of a kind. You will excuse me, won't you? It's so good.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah. She's a murder. Murder view on them.

[Kim Coles]

I want to just do a shout out to Ellen Falcon, who later became Ellen Gittleson, our director. If you notice, this scene never stops moving. And there's no's and yeses and nos the whole scene as she, you know, picks you up and moves you over there and moves you. Just really, when you all have a chance, really watch the genius of that. And the way we're laughing at the way Khadijah's saying, no, thank you. Because you gotta be careful how you.

[Erica Alexander]

No, thank you, baby.

[Kim Coles]

No, thank you, baby.

[Erica Alexander]

No, thank you, baby.

[Kim Coles]

No, no, no, baby. Maybe later.

[Erica Alexander]

Maybe later, baby.

[Kim Coles]

There's a Science to that. Because you don't want to make these guys mad. Cause they're like, oh, you just a bitch. Like men will get mad at you. So she. Oh, no, no, baby, maybe later.

[Erica Alexander]

Maybe later, babies. Oh, she macking hard.

[Kim Coles]

Mackin hard.

[Erica Alexander]

Come on. People need to study, right? So here we have certain characteristics. Now, each character has characteristics. Khadijah is the picky one. Max is the gold tooth magnet. Good God. Regine is wearing the same outfit as someone else. And she is trying to get rid of all of those dresses, all the compliments. Yeah. Out of the club. Cause she can't not relax with somebody else, you know, dressed like her. Kyle is not the lady man that.

[Kim Coles]

We think him to be.

[Erica Alexander]

No. And Sinclair Overton are the same. They're awkward and they're rhythmless. That's what's up.

[Kim Coles]

Well, can I tell you something? Behind the scenes is I actually asked a friend to choreograph my dance.

[Erica Alexander]

So you choreographed this?

[Kim Coles]

Yes. So a guy named Milo Lavelle. There was a class I was going to. He had like a fitness dance class class. And he created such incredible community. And anybody could come to the class. You didn't have to, you know, whether you're young or old or black and white. It was just. He created beautiful community and you could come and learn like the latest dance. And so there's going to be some dances you see me doing that were from that era, but I had to do them the Sinclair way. So even you know that. And like doubling up on each side. That was choreographed.

[Erica Alexander]

Who did he work with?

[Kim Coles]

Michael Jackson. Sandra Bullock. Diana Ross. Jessica. Michael Jackson, apparently. So. So he's. So you have to be really good to teach someone how to dance really bad. Milo Lavelle. I'm giving you love.

[Erica Alexander]

And you know, you nailed it. Because if you're supposed to dance really bad, girl, you were good at that.

[Kim Coles]

I said show me what's out there. But like, teach me how to do it poorly. Or maybe that's.

[Erica Alexander]

Can you still bust the move?

[Kim Coles]

Oh, yeah, that.

[Erica Alexander]

You know, show us.

[Kim Coles]

You know that. Show us. The knees are bad.

[Erica Alexander]

Okay.

[Kim Coles]

I can do this. I could. Do you know that you do this.

[Erica Alexander]

You know, it's always so you can't. I can't bust them even more. All right, great.

[Kim Coles]

At least I'm not at home Saturday nights making arts.

[Erica Alexander]

No. Or at least it's, you know, archive.

[Kim Coles]

I've got rhythm, but I don't.

[Erica Alexander]

How are we supposed to know?

[Kim Coles]

I don't. Cause I'm doing it really put some Music on. Let me do.

[Erica Alexander]

I'm doing. She's trying to prove to us she has rhythm. At any point, we're open to it.

[Kim Coles]

If you play a beat. Let me catch the beat. So yeah. So, Milo, I'm giving you love. I got it. I got it. I lost it. If you never. We're gonna go to break right now and I'll see y' all back in Just a mom.

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[Erica Alexander]

Yes. You tore it up, girl.

[Kim Coles]

I haven't had this much fun since Grammy. James. 80th birthday. Okay, words. Grammy was kicking, wasn't she? $212 and 87 cents of dress shot to hell.

[Erica Alexander]

She's a salty.

[Kim Coles]

She ain't hook up with anybody like I did. Maxine, I can't believe you gave Goldie your number. I thought you said you didn't like him.

[Erica Alexander]

I gave him a number, all right. Just wasn't mine. Yo, Shaquan, telephone.

[Kim Coles]

Goldie. No, this Shaquan sister Sabouda.

[Erica Alexander]

So the crew has survived the club.

[Kim Coles]

We come home jubilant. We had a great time. You know, even though it was necessary.

[Erica Alexander]

Singing I Will Survive by the great Globe, Gloria Gaynor.

[Kim Coles]

Gaynor, please.

[Erica Alexander]

You know, despite everything that it's an epic night. It's an epic night because they went through hell. But doesn't matter.

[Kim Coles]

We wanted to have fun and we had it. So maybe it didn't turn out the way we like. She wanted to Mac. I just wanted my Obi. You had to deal with Goldie. I had Obi, you had Goldie. But we still had fun. And I imagine that we had a few cocktails. Cause I felt a little tipsy.

[Erica Alexander]

And they probably picked that song because true to the character of Khadijah, I Will Survive. That's what she would pick to sing.

[Kim Coles]

Strong on an open mic.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah, strong.

[Kim Coles]

And it's also a crowd Pleaser. You put that song on any day, anytime, in any group, they're gonna sing and dance and enj, and everybody can remember the lyrics, and it was great. And then Regine tells us that her dress was $213.12, which is equivalent to $474 today. I have to say, I'm not sure that looks like a $474 dress.

[Erica Alexander]

It does. Not to me.

[Kim Coles]

Okay, good. Just check.

[Erica Alexander]

Not to me.

[Kim Coles]

But maybe she bought it at a.

[Erica Alexander]

Boutique and she got scammed.

[Kim Coles]

She got. It wasn't. Didn't look like $213 worth of dress either, but she made it look good.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah, she's cutie pie.

[Kim Coles]

Stylish. Please.

[Erica Alexander]

That little figure, that was a Kmart Blue Light specialty.

[Kim Coles]

For sure. For sure.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah. Okay, girl, we. About the elephant that's in the room.

[Kim Coles]

Who's the elephant in the room?

[Erica Alexander]

Well, let's talk about Miguel Nunez.

[Kim Coles]

Yeah.

[Erica Alexander]

Because he wasn't always.

[Kim Coles]

Who was the original.

[Erica Alexander]

The original Goldie? When we started rehearsing this, who was the original Goldie?

[Kim Coles]

Eddie Griffith.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah.

[Kim Coles]

And he lasted a couple of days, right? I think he. A couple of rehearsals.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah. And we know Eddie Griffith. So Eddie Griffiths is for Malcolm and Eddie.

[Kim Coles]

Right.

[Erica Alexander]

Fantastic comedian.

[Kim Coles]

Great comedian.

[Erica Alexander]

Genius.

[Kim Coles]

Edgy, funny, political, and, like, you know, intense. Very quick. Great writer.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah. He did Undercover Brother, Meteor Man. Yeah.

[Kim Coles]

Yeah. That's funny. And what was the reason he didn't work for this episode and he was let go? Do you want to share?

[Erica Alexander]

Well, see, what had happened was they didn't think that he would be reliably able to say the lines they wrote.

[Kim Coles]

So let's break that down, because he's a genius, you know, genius comedian.

[Erica Alexander]

Improvisation.

[Kim Coles]

Right. And I mentioned it on an earlier episode about Steve White, who came in with new ways to tell the jokes. When the production company comes down and watches the rehearsal, they want to hear the words that the writers have written. And Eddie was coming up with new lines and coming up with new stuff and making it hot, making it fresh, making it new. But they still needed to hear those words, and they didn't trust that he was ever gonna do those words.

[Erica Alexander]

Right. And we should say that this is our take on it. Cause that's what I remember. So, you know, Yvette may say something different, and that's fine, but that's what I remember. That it wasn't sort of jibing. You know what? For writers, if it's your first season especially, you know, anxiety is their love language. They're balancing a lot more than we can that we can even know. And so they wanna make sure that.

[Kim Coles]

You know, make sure the jokes land the way they wrote them. Right.

[Erica Alexander]

And he's a fantastic improvisationalist. And he was also, I think, playing the room. At least I remember that each time he would do something different, he was also finding it for himself and seeing where he'd land.

[Kim Coles]

And there's nothing wrong with that. That's great. But because we were in our first season, because it was sort of new. It wasn't new. This is our sixth episode, right? Yeah, I think that they were.

[Erica Alexander]

But we're new in the first season. Sixth episod. That's not a lot.

[Kim Coles]

Not at all. And I think that they were nervous about it, and I don't know that they should have been. Cause Eddie is great. He's fun and funny, but they weren't sure that he could do what they needed to do.

[Erica Alexander]

That's what I remember. And that's what we're told. But, you know, making the transition from comedian to ensemble is a thing. Not everybody does it all at once.

[Kim Coles]

Sometimes not everybody does it at all.

[Erica Alexander]

At all. He did it.

[Kim Coles]

There's no doubt about it. He finally did. He finally did.

[Erica Alexander]

Of course. Did. But it's not for everybody. And so let's talk about the difference between the standup world and sitcom.

[Kim Coles]

Right. So the beauty of the standup world is you're performing your own material. And even if you have friends who co. Write with you or people who write for you. Cause a lot of comics have people who write for them, you're still a singular performer on stage. And you're. You are in control of everything. I think ultimately the audience is working with you or not, but you have your content, your material, your own material, your own style.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah.

[Kim Coles]

And no one is directing you. You're correcting the lines. And again, if you're really listening to an audience, you will make adjustments. And ultimately you're working with them. But so there's that. And then you come to the sitcom world where the page, the words are on a page, and you have to take the words that are on the page and make them.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah, it's pretty magical. Yeah. And the demands of it are that you're basically learning a new play a week every week. And the guest stars have it a lot more. There's a lot more pressure on them to stick the move, like stick the landing.

[Kim Coles]

Right.

[Erica Alexander]

You know, you come in and it's a very. The precision of it is you're supposed to, you know, again, get cast, like, probably a Day or two, or maybe a week before, and then come into a new cast, getting to know each other or knows each other very well, and then find their rhythm and then do your thing and do it each time with new lines and everything else. And it's not always an easy transition.

[Kim Coles]

And it might have been. And be interesting to find out, timing wise, if Eddie had done any of that yet, had done any guest starring on any other shows yet, and had yet found his way to, oh, this is what I'm supposed to do in this moment. You know, he probably thinks, they hired me to be me, and they hired me because I'm me. It's a fine dance.

[Erica Alexander]

And they didn't hire him because, like, they hired us for us. And so there are a lot of wonderful people who've made that transition. And you're like Ray Romano, Bernie Mac, Red Fox, Bill Cosby, Wanda Sykes, Monique.

[Kim Coles]

Amy Poehler, John Hinton, Kim Thorpe, the Wayans family.

[Erica Alexander]

The entire Wayans family.

[Kim Coles]

And I'm glad that even though he didn't stay on our episode, he. He went on to have a show named for him.

[Erica Alexander]

Stunt nothing. I mean, he's just brilliant. I'm just saying that for people to know that there's all these sort of.

[Kim Coles]

Things happening behind the scenes.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah. These moving wheels and turning wheels. And that happens. Yeah. So, you know, lots of love.

[Kim Coles]

Lots of love to Eddie, lots of love to Miguel Nunez. And then, you know, even the way he turned his mouth so that you could see the glint on his Right. It was so good. We gotta go to the bathroom. The way he did it was just. If you watch the movement, this episode never stops moving, even at the end when we come home.

[Erica Alexander]

Oh, that's true.

[Kim Coles]

What else is going on in this episode?

[Erica Alexander]

Well, I think we're getting ready to do the reverb.

[Kim Coles]

Oh, let's do it. Reverb. This is the reverb. Our time to reflect on the episode's themes and how they still echo throughout the culture.

[Erica Alexander]

And, you know, I gotta say, that was awesome. But that was also tame. The Living Single version of clubs was very tame.

[Kim Coles]

Right.

[Erica Alexander]

Because it was sanitized and all that. But, you know what it was really like was, well, first of all, we were defined by what we didn't wear. You know, we didn't wear gold. Cause you got jumped.

[Kim Coles]

I'm wearing gold.

[Erica Alexander]

You got jumped if you wore gold.

[Kim Coles]

Oh, you mean gold chains.

[Erica Alexander]

Gold chains.

[Kim Coles]

Oh, yeah, you did.

[Erica Alexander]

And the shoes. You also got jumped for your shoes. So you always took care. Like, if you had Jordans or any of those things.

[Kim Coles]

Left that at home.

[Erica Alexander]

You get junk colors. Like there were gang cultures. You could go red or blue if you were in Los Angeles and what you couldn't wear, you know, there was a crack era, you know, you didn't just go out. You had to, you know, navigate through this minefield of, you know, of dark spaces and that type of thing and.

[Kim Coles]

Where to go that's safe. And how did you get there?

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah, yeah. And it really affected nightlife. Cause people go now to New York and they see like all this great bright lights in Disney. But it was a lot of prostitution and it was dangerous to go out. It really was. And so we wore. I would say we. You know, a lot of guys wore Timberlands. Timberlands just weren't a fashion statement. They were also a weapon. Kick the shit out of somebody, you hear me? I mean, really take them out. But that was just the vibe of it. And I'm not trying to be down. I'm just trying to say, you know, hey, it was pretty dark and a lot of things smelt like smoke and vomit. Remember smoking? Remember smoking and the kitten and smoking in the club.

[Kim Coles]

Smoking on planes, Smoking everywhere.

[Erica Alexander]

Everywhere. And the clothes were synthetic and they were tacky and the food was gross and unhealthy. I mean, really, Listen, it was with all that time of our lives, everybody was creating new things and that type of thing. And those clubs were also fostering the careers of these great artists. You know, we're all mixing together. But it was one of the reasons I didn't go out. I didn't go out because I didn't like any of that.

[Kim Coles]

Right.

[Erica Alexander]

So it wasn't just that I was working and that type of thing. I just wanted to avoid some of the minefields, right?

[Kim Coles]

I wasn't going out there. I was going.

[Erica Alexander]

But you did go out. Cause you were meeting.

[Kim Coles]

I was going to comedy clubs. So for me, from the perspective of going to comedy clubs, there was opportunity. There were, you know, a lot of these nightclubs, like on a Tuesday night or on a Monday night when they were dark, you know, they would just throw up a microphone and it became a comedy club. So these opportunities became. These rooms now became, you know, movable feasts. You became something different. So you could go and perform and you could go. And I remember my ex husband and I and a group of other guys did a show at the Limelight. Do you remember the Limelight? It was a church in Manhattan that they converted into a nightclub.

[Erica Alexander]

Into the nightclub. And I thought that was so unholy.

[Kim Coles]

It was unholy. And I mean, and full on church. Full on church and just gutted stained.

[Erica Alexander]

Glass windows and everything.

[Kim Coles]

All of it. In fact, there were some pews along the side and we did a comedy night there once and so that, you know, you could just pop up and do your thing. And so I'm not aware, maybe because I was performing, I wasn't aware of the danger of it. You know, here's what it is. Getting to these places was what was dangerous. There were no Ubers, there were no. You either hopped on a train or if you had the money that you.

[Erica Alexander]

Had, meaning the getting there.

[Kim Coles]

Okay, got it.

[Erica Alexander]

That's why people traveled like that. You didn't want to be accosted.

[Kim Coles]

And Times Square, like you said, it was not Disneyized yet. It was still really grungy and really dirty. But so going out was a risk.

[Erica Alexander]

And I think that if I had been a comedian, that would have been a great time. Because you think about Eddie Murphy and Steve Harvey and like, tell us who there.

[Kim Coles]

So the people I was encountering at that time. So I'm like the generation that's like right behind Eddie Murphy. So Eddie Murphy, I gotta give him his flowers. Was the, the one that we all went, oh, my goodness, this is possible for all of us. Especially for black comics. Black comedy in particular exploded. But. And that's why I say that, you know, restaurants were opening, were saying on Monday night, we have a comedy night. And they would just throw up a brick wall and a microphone and there you were. So my time was, you know, Joy Behar from the View was doing standard Rosie o' Donnell, Phyllis, Yvonne Stickney, Ellen Cleghorn, who doesn't get the flowers she deserves. No, she deserves J. Jones and, you know, Angela Scott and a whole bunch of other girls. And here's what's interesting about being a black woman in that space. This is before Monique. This is before certainly before Tiffany Haddish. The clubs were such, first of all, they're very male dominated spaces and they're very white spaces. And so if you were a black woman at that time, it was almost as if they would only let one in to be like a regular on.

[Erica Alexander]

The roster really that night, or just.

[Kim Coles]

Like, or even like to be on the roster. So you would get one and maybe another one. And so you sort of had these, I would say, silos where so. And so was the queen of Caroline's and somebody else was the queen at Catch a Rising Star and somebody else was the queen at Dangerfields. And we almost never got a chance to perform together because they would only let one in at a time.

[Erica Alexander]

Wow.

[Kim Coles]

So that's how you know Phyllis. Yvonne Stickney was up in Harlem performing. I eventually got into Caroline's because another black woman, she opened the door for me. Her name is Angela Scott. When that campaign that Tom Joyner did to keep us on the air, Jetta Jones was with him at that time. So part of that morning crew, there was not just a handful of us. And so we had to create a sisterhood, but also understand was Marsha Warfield.

[Erica Alexander]

Or any of these people.

[Kim Coles]

Well, Marcia had come before us. Marcia had come before us. I'm talking about like in New York at that time. So when someone like a Marsha would come through, it was like a queen has arrived.

[Erica Alexander]

It's amazing. So that type of discrimination didn't stop many of y' all from succeeding, but it to me is a huge obstacle that people didn't know were there.

[Kim Coles]

No, no.

[Erica Alexander]

They had no idea.

[Kim Coles]

And sometimes they would let one black girl and that's it. And so you have to hope and pray, like next time, can it be me?

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah. Because from the outside we were seeing all these things happen. We were seeing hip hop mixed with comedy, create like these self published artists who were entrepreneurial, who were getting along. But it shows that the discussion really wasn't happening as fluidly or as equitably for women.

[Kim Coles]

Not at all.

[Erica Alexander]

And for black women.

[Kim Coles]

And then you get, I have to mention Robin Montague too, who's a friend who now is writing on the Sherri Shepherd Show. So there's also great women, great men who were performers at that time, who were doing well at that time, who've now transitioned into writing.

[Erica Alexander]

I was about to say, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Kim Coles]

And so they found their way by still performing live, but also by being behind the scenes in writing too. Wanda Sykes was a part of the next level that came up, or she came from, I think Chicago and then. So, yeah, yeah, there's a lot of.

[Erica Alexander]

Folks we wouldn't have, I think, American television if it wasn't for the working comedians. Because if you're looking back in the 50s and all of that, they were always on there, you know, using their brand of, I don't know whether for their life's work and the material, but.

[Kim Coles]

Their affability, their point of view. So you're talking Flip Wilson, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, you know, keep going. All of the people listen, you want to study American television, American comedy, laughing, you know, that Presentational Jerry Lewis stand up comedy and could then, you know, turn it into acting, turn characters around it.

[Erica Alexander]

And here's something that people don't really know is that you're coming into people's homes every week. And that right there is a special invitation. It's like a vampire invitation. You have to be allowed.

[Kim Coles]

It's true.

[Erica Alexander]

You're saying, will you let me in? And they say yes. And then once they get there, they try to get stuck to you, you know, like sink in. And it's a great compliment if people say, you know, I love that person so much, I watch them each week. Whereas a movie, you might watch that one movie, you might. Movie stars, they build these sort of huge franchises sometime and their Persona is sort of precede the movie itself.

[Kim Coles]

Oh, for sure.

[Erica Alexander]

But for this you're saying your likability and the way you make me feel is the reason why I let you in each week.

[Kim Coles]

Right.

[Erica Alexander]

It's a very sacred hollow space.

[Kim Coles]

So, yeah, so there was a different club experience for me.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah, but there was a club experience. Nowadays we have Generation Relaxed. They're sitting around in their sweats, they're looking and scrolling their phone and gaming and all that kind of stuff. And then when they do get to parties, they take a lot of pictures and they'll be texting, texting right next to each other.

[Kim Coles]

No, I know, like, hey, what's going on?

[Erica Alexander]

I am horrified. I keep just thinking, wow, you don't.

[Kim Coles]

Know how to relate to each other. Yeah, they don't want to relate to each other.

[Erica Alexander]

It is the end times. How do you breed? I mean, let's be real.

[Kim Coles]

Well, I'm sure they'll find out.

[Erica Alexander]

Somebody got to pull out something at some point, you know what I'm saying?

[Kim Coles]

Well, they'll have to learn. I'm sure it's cyclical. They're going to have to figure out, well, somebody's having babies, aren't they? Don't act like they're the. Like the civilization's gonna end.

[Erica Alexander]

I'm not, but I do think that it's. There's an important mating dance that happens when you get all dressed up like a peacock and then you start strutting around and in a way, we are animals and we strut around and go.

[Kim Coles]

Maybe a little bit later, baby. Maybe later.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah, later baby. And that's us showing off our wares.

[Kim Coles]

Okay. You know, so how do they show off their wares? We have to have some on the show and ask them how they show their wares.

[Erica Alexander]

They don't they send you a text, and then they look at the text, and then they analyze it. So what do you. Should I text back? Is it too quick? I mean, or not at all? Not tonight. Send a pic. No. A heart emoji? No. Too much too soon. Maybe a check? I mean, give me a break. I'm glad. Listen, I didn't go out, and maybe that's what I was, you know, trying to avoid. But, you know, if I did, I'm not gonna dance on the wall. I'm getting out in the middle of the floor, like you said with your girlfriend, you get out, grab a girl and dance.

[Kim Coles]

Grab a guy and dance. Right, right. First I was afraid. I was petrified.

[Erica Alexander]

So, yeah, you know, so we're gonna give a shout out to fashion and, you know, Carol Kanai cross colors, fubu, Cazales. Go on, Keith.

[Kim Coles]

Oh, Cazales, Adidas and Lee jeans and name tags. You know, I don't think some of these brands did not know. We were just talking about Gazelles, which, you know, in New York, we were like, we called them Gazelles. These brands didn't know that young black culture was gonna take over. You know, Ralph Lauren didn't know that black folks, Tommy figure was not expecting, it was unexpected that we would take this sort of preppy, preppy brand.

[Erica Alexander]

And it took a while for them to even recognize not. Not cross colors that say fubu. That was.

[Kim Coles]

No, of course. I'm talking about these other prep events like Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger and Cazales, which was an Italian eyewear brand and became.

[Erica Alexander]

And Adidas.

[Kim Coles]

And Adidas, Right?

[Erica Alexander]

Yes.

[Kim Coles]

Right. Come on. Right. Sturdy, wonderful, you know, dungarees that, you know, cowboys used to wear, and now they become the fashion.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah. And we set our hair on curlers with the pink moisturizing lotion.

[Kim Coles]

I'm sorry, Lusters, if you like. It would make your hair. Hair stink. After a night or two, you go out to the club, the Luster's pink oil, moisturizing it to be.

[Erica Alexander]

Look like Pepto Bismol. And we sit up there going, it's pink. It must work, right?

[Kim Coles]

You know, like, you won't remember this, but we did a campaign and they were the. We did something with another. Okay, I won't tell you who. T. TV1. And they were a sponsor, and they had it all on the. On the table. And we did. We had to do a little thing and you like. I don't. Do we have to touch it? Do we have to actually put it on it?

[Erica Alexander]

And the reason was. Is Because I didn't use it.

[Kim Coles]

Right, right.

[Erica Alexander]

You know, and to me, I remember just sort of saying. And it was no shade.

[Kim Coles]

No, no. It's just like, I don't. Why am I promoting this? And am I getting the check? No, the check is paid for the show, you know.

[Erica Alexander]

And the Jheri curl was on the ring, by the way. Did you ever have. Some of the greasiest people in the world was dancing on the dance floor, just grease all down their back and.

[Kim Coles]

Dripping on you when they shook you, the stuff, you know, I never. Did you have a Jheri curl ever? No, never.

[Erica Alexander]

My brother did. Bless him. My brother did.

[Kim Coles]

Your hair was moisturized, though. It grew.

[Erica Alexander]

Yes. And your pillowcase was brown and wet. I mean, it was just nasty. Black stockings. Right.

[Kim Coles]

Mini skirts and so much Vaseline. Vaseline on your lips, on your hair, on your edges, on your. Everything.

[Erica Alexander]

Yes. We put it everywhere.

[Kim Coles]

Everywhere. And Vaseline's back now in a big way. Like, they're using it as real skin care. Like, you know, put on your skin care products and this, like. I think they call it slugging or slogging or something. You put that on over to lock in everything, and your skin does not breathe ever again. Right. But you're shiny. But you're shiny because you're locked in glass skin. Glass skin.

[Erica Alexander]

Big thing.

[Kim Coles]

Yeah.

[Erica Alexander]

Wow. What a thing. Yeah, what a thing. Good times.

[Kim Coles]

Good times. And the sweating. The sweat, you know, I would sweat out my. My little perm. Like, you know, your edges would just sweat out. You spent your time sweating out.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah.

[Kim Coles]

At the end of the night, you throw it all up in a ponytail.

[Erica Alexander]

Well, it sweat out because I didn't have a pony. And so I just. Yeah, that's one of the reasons why I started wearing braids is because you're right, it would just go back and it was, you know, go flat, they used to say. I went. One time we went to. In eighth grade, we went to Disney World, go to Florida and be. Have natural hair. And the girl spent all night pressing my hair. And I was in between there, you know, and no one had ever done that for me, like, that. Pressing my hair and putting it in these they call Boo Brimming. When I woke up, that thing had shrunk back and they said, oh, they started laughing. You got that African hair. You got that African stuff. And I was listening to them, like, what do they mean? I didn't know really about relaxers that much. And that's when I learned that their hair stayed straight because of that Right. And I started doing that, and then I let it go because I realized my hair is too fine and I didn't like the way it looked. But no, I mean, it was. It was. Yeah.

[Kim Coles]

Quite a time. Quite a time.

[Erica Alexander]

That's crazy. Well, you know, but by the way, rap was big, and everybody wanted to be a rapper, and I did, too.

[Kim Coles]

So do you have a mixtape to share with us?

[Erica Alexander]

Me? You mean my rap demo tape? Yes, me and Caramalina White Charmaine. Yeah, we had a demo deal. We did. Wow. Yeah, we rapped.

[Kim Coles]

And what was the name of the group again?

[Erica Alexander]

It was called. We were called the Players, and she was Treble K, and I was basically.

[Kim Coles]

Treble K and bass.

[Erica Alexander]

E. And I rap because I wanted to get more acting jobs. Believe it or not, if you rap, you can act more.

[Kim Coles]

I love this. So you. You wanted. You weren't. You wanted to be multifaceted, and you knew that there would be another door.

[Erica Alexander]

No, I was multi. No, I didn't want to be multifaceted. I became multifaceted so I could get more acting jobs. You know what I'm saying?

[Kim Coles]

That's great thinking.

[Erica Alexander]

At the time, I was. Wanted to maybe be a writer, like, you know, but I didn't want to be a rapper. But I saw all the rappers getting the jobs.

[Kim Coles]

You're like, let's do.

[Erica Alexander]

I said, man, you know what? Why not? And so, yeah, we did a. Our album was gonna be called Payback's a Bitch. I'm not even kidding you. Lights, cameras, action. No, Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. No, no, no, no. It's too early. It's too early in the season. In the season. Yeah, you gotta earn that.

[Kim Coles]

Well, I want everybody to write in and let us know if you'd like to hear a little bit of bass. E. Face.

[Erica Alexander]

E. Oh, gosh. Let's do True Blue, where we hear from our friends, our friends, our family, our fans. Yeah, let's do it.

[Kim Coles]

Amber, what do you have?

[I]

All right, so we have a question from Nicole M. And she says, hi, Erica Kim and crew. Okay.

[Erica Alexander]

Hey, girl. Hi, Nicole.

[Kim Coles]

Hi, Nicole.

[I]

She says it's great to hear your perspective on the show 30 years later. I'm curious about the ages of the characters compared to the life stages portrayed in the show. It was the 90s, and I know that there were successful young black people in the world back then as there are now, but I can't help but notice the characters are all in their 20s, but they seem to have achieved a lot by their Ages. What was the motivation for this? And was it intentional to have the characters feel ageless even though they are in their 20s?

[Erica Alexander]

Fabulous.

[Kim Coles]

And she's saying that we were in our 20s, but we seemed accomplished for our. Well, how old do you think Max was?

[Erica Alexander]

I made her me. So she was 23, but.

[Kim Coles]

And she would have finished law school.

[Erica Alexander]

There was no way that. Yeah, I don't think so. I think she might have been more like a 26 year old or 27.

[Kim Coles]

So she was super smart, got out of law school and. Cause she was at a Evans Bell and Associate. So she was at a top law firm. And would she have had that by 26?

[Erica Alexander]

I think she might have. Well, you know, she definitely would have had her law degree, but I just don't know if she would have been as accomplished. So part of me wanted to say that she might have skipped a grade or two.

[Kim Coles]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Erica Alexander]

And my mother started me early to kindergarten at 3 because I have a late birthday. So let's just say maybe Max was a little bit older, but not much because let's just say that she's pretty. A really great student. And she was pushed along.

[Kim Coles]

Right. And was driven and.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah. Very ambitious.

[Kim Coles]

I'm going to say that Sinclair was 25. I was really 30, 32 or something like that. And you know, I don't know that I would be considered the most driven or ambitious at that time when at least.

[Erica Alexander]

Well, if it was about Trolls Queen.

[Kim Coles]

I'm in. I'm in.

[Erica Alexander]

Yvette Leigh Bowser had accomplished a ton and she was about 28 or 27. 28.

[Kim Coles]

I remember going to visit her at her house when we were working on this show and I remember looking around and she has it decorated beautifully. I mean, she was making good money because she was a writer on these shows and it was decorated beautifully. It was very much her. It was very girly and cute and she seemed to really have it together. And so I think she's somebody who may have blossomed early and was really driven and wanted. She's very driven, very super smart, went to Stanford.

[Erica Alexander]

Super smart.

[Kim Coles]

So she infused that into these characters.

[Erica Alexander]

Into these characters.

[Kim Coles]

So why wouldn't Khadijah come out of college? And I don't know where she got the money to start the magazine, but she was like, I'm gonna start something. And I have. So it's.

[Erica Alexander]

So I think it comes from their creator, the Frankenstein monster comes from Dr. Frankenstein. So we must look to Yvette Lee Bowser who has given them her characteristics and that didn't seem. That. That was. That's not far off.

[Kim Coles]

Far off from who she was and not far off for us to have witnessed that or experienced that. Meaning, like, we knew people in our world who were driven and smart. Like, you know, Kyle exists. Kyle, basically, Kyle basketball barker exists. Right. That guy. Now, maybe we didn't see a lot of him on Wall street or wherever he was working. We didn't see a lot of him, but he was possible.

[Erica Alexander]

And, you know, the truth of the matter is that. That we exist. We were really ridiculously accomplished at very young ages because many people started. You started doing standup. And, I mean, this kid. Let me tell you a little bit about Kim Coles here. You were president of your high school.

[Kim Coles]

I was president of the class of 80. All four years.

[Erica Alexander]

All four years.

[Kim Coles]

But not because I had been particularly political or smart. It was because I made them laugh. The school that went to ambition, Right? Right.

[Erica Alexander]

Well, you had to run and you had to make them laugh. You had to perform. Who can say? All four years.

[Kim Coles]

I created a community of kinds.

[Erica Alexander]

I mean, all four years. Basically, you were like a huge authoritarian dictator that held them hostage for four years.

[Kim Coles]

You graduated with 1,000 people. So that was no small feat.

[Erica Alexander]

No. So I'm gonna give you props. And then you went on. And then you went to college a few places, but you all also VP then, you know, William Bishop, barber of the Poor People's Campaign, one of the baddest moral leaders in the country.

[Kim Coles]

Very much so.

[Erica Alexander]

The winner of the genius award and all. The MacArthur Genius Award. And y' all were together as a.

[Kim Coles]

Pair, right, at nccu?

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah. That's no joke. And then you have, you know, we already talked about the resumes of everyone coming in, and certainly Yvette Lee Bowser had. And I think that if you look at it, maybe that's why birds of a feather flock together.

[Kim Coles]

So we're comparing what was going on in the 90s to what's available now. Here's what's really cool about this generation and what's available to them now. You have the World Wide Web. You can have an idea, launch a website. You know, launch products and ideas so easily. There's. There's less impediment to creating things. If you have the ideas, you can just create it and make it. You can, you know, make a logo on Canva, and then you're up and running. I'm not saying that it's easy. I'm saying that it's doable. And if you have the Wherewithal, if you have the drive to do something, you don't have to have a brick and mortar is what I'm saying. In order to have something, create something and something new. And whether or not you finish your schooling or whether or not you haven't, I do think that they have less money than we do because that crash of 2008 really messed up things up. But I do think that if you have ideas and have ambition, there are ways to get yourself up and rolling aside.

[Erica Alexander]

But I push back against that. More money. Because money, more money or money does not make a miracle. In order to make a miracle, you have to get out there and create.

[Kim Coles]

That's what we have in common.

[Erica Alexander]

Generation X was one of the most creative generations because for whatever people think we had, we had a ton of. Of unrest and wars and things like that, and people think we had jobs and all of that. But I think that there was a really great renaissance in America just after 93 building. There was a lot of issues that came up massacre. But America started to work a little better. So I'll give people that. That there was a sense of hope and people were buying homes and that type of thing. I don't think if I was an actress I would be able to buy that. And I certainly was not. Max. I have a high school degree. I'm not a lawyer. But I think that the more I look back on anything that helped me, every time I took advantage of an independent spirit, my whole career moves. And to this day I'll be sort of in a lull period and then an independent thing will come on and poof, it's like rocket fuel and send me up. And I just keep thinking that we need people to understand that you have all the tools.

[Kim Coles]

It comes from within. First it has to come from within.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah. And so, you know, so manage, manage. Don't manage your expectation around anything that you see.

[Kim Coles]

Right, right.

[Erica Alexander]

That you think that you. You won't get because you don't have this or that and make use of.

[Kim Coles]

The time that you're in. So, you know, people watching us are comparing their lives now to, you know, to this, you know, know, this show. And it was created to have all those pieces in place so that we had that in common in different. Like I said, in different levels. Maybe I wasn't as driven as Khadijah, but there was something there. And so you look at it for. For. For entertainment and look at it and go like, what of this could I have myself rather than comparing the ages and the Stages. And I've said to you all before, I'm. I was a little bit older than you all, but at 23, I was just getting into the comedy club clubs, just starting to perform. I had gotten married, so I didn't think that I had. I had some other things in place. So to take what you have in place and work what you got.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah. But to be clear, they're also selling a lifestyle that was the beginning of selling an influence. You know what I mean? Like, you had to floss. And all the rappers had all this stuff and cars and sometimes. And they didn't own.

[Kim Coles]

And the diamonds weren't always real.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah.

[Kim Coles]

Or they were borrowed.

[Erica Alexander]

They were borrowed. You know, that type of a thing. So again, a lot of that is a mirage. You know, what's in front of you is your mind. Feed that. And then take yourself across the street and go learn about your neighbor. And then go cross two more streets. To me, that's real wealth, and that's where you get your ideas. But more importantly, that's where they can find you. You gotta move. Cause when you move, the world moves.

[Kim Coles]

You want some of this hot action? Hot action.

[Erica Alexander]

You have some hot tickets.

[Kim Coles]

It you this. You want some of this hot action? You want some of this, Some of this advice and wisdom and wise sage information. Send us your emails. You got it easy, kids. And learn that. Learn that. Now get out in the streets like we did. Yeah, I'm a boomer, so I got a whole other thing. Go to reliving single podcastartbeat.com, write us, and we too will break your hearts and break your spirits like we just did. You'll be fine, kids. You think you have it hard? We had it hard, too. And guess what? Here's what's cool. Every generation thinks that they have it harder than the generation before. That's cyclical. That's real. Everyone thinks that they had. Like, this was. This is the worst. You had it so easy until you.

[Erica Alexander]

Get a load of Harriet Tubman, Right? I'm cool right where I am. I don't know about y' all, but I'm good. Refrigeration and flushing toilet, baby.

[Kim Coles]

I got a shot. It's not so bad.

[Erica Alexander]

Little penicillin. Hey, we can do this. I can have sex without a thought, right?

[Kim Coles]

But with a condom.

[Erica Alexander]

With a condom.

[Kim Coles]

My generation. My generation is the last generation that could do it without a condom.

[Erica Alexander]

It's true. We didn't mention that. By the way, condoms was the other things we were wearing, right? Wow.

[Kim Coles]

Yeah. I mean, we were Wearing them to prevent pregnancy, but not disease.

[Erica Alexander]

No. Well, we. We were. Let me tell you something. We were wrapped in Saran Wrap up in this mouth.

[Kim Coles]

Right?

[T Mobile Representative]

Right, right, right, right.

[Erica Alexander]

It's real. I mean, I was so afraid of. You know. Come on.

[Kim Coles]

Woo.

[Erica Alexander]

We could do pussy stories later.

[Kim Coles]

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for watching Reliving Single, the podcast.

[Erica Alexander]

Yes.

[Kim Coles]

Tune in next week. Tune in every week. Tell your friends, Tell several friends. Let's get these numbers up and you can find us on all the socials at Reliving Living Single podcast, all everywhere. YouTube, Spotify, Apple, Apple, all of that. You all know that already. Tell your people.

[Erica Alexander]

Yes.

[Kim Coles]

Thank you so much for watching. And we'll see you next week.

[Erica Alexander]

Yes, absolutely.

[Kim Coles]

I can't believe you rapped.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah, I did a lot of things. Yeah, I stripped too.

[Kim Coles]

Oh, wait a minute. What do you mean stripped?

[Erica Alexander]

I did, you know, Hollywood stripped the soul right out of my body. Right out of my. Erica, you're such a. I am a little bit. A little bit.

[Kim Coles]

Reliving Single is hosted by Erica Alexander and me, Kim Coles. Reliving Single is a production of Heartbeat in association with Color Farm Media, Executive produced by Kevin Hart, Jeff Clanigan, Eric Eddings, Leslie Guam, Erica Alexander and Ben R. Nan. This show is produced by Kim Kohl's. Amber Watson is our senior producer. Producer. Our associate producer is Kenny Jackson. Our sound engineers are Eric Hicks and Cedric Wilson. Production supervision by Razak Boykin. Additional production support from Alex Atkins and Z. Taylor. And a Special thanks to Dr. E.J. johnson.

[Erica Alexander]

Foreign.

[Amber Watson]

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[Erica Alexander]

That's.

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[Amber Watson]

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[T Mobile Customer]

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[T Mobile Customer]

I feel like I have to give you something in return for karma.

[Amber Watson]

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[Amber Watson]

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