Club Shay Shay - REWIND: DC Young Fly on his comedic process
Episode Date: May 1, 2023In this special rewind episode of Club Shay Shay, revisit some of Shannon's favorite segments from the show so far. Today, listen to Shannon talk with actor, writer, comedian and musician DC Young Fly... about his comedic process, performing live and the modern state of comedy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Hey, Club Che Che listeners.
We'll be back soon with weekly episodes
featuring brand new interviews with exciting
Roster of guests until then
Enjoy this special rewind episode
With one of my favorite moments from Club Che Che
So far
All my life, been grinding all my life
Sacrifice, hustle paid the price
Want a slice, got the roll of dice
That's why
How long does it take you to write a set?
Oof I've been on Man, I've been on If you grew on a set, how long does it take you to write a set?
I've been on, man, I've been on doing stand-up professionally since 2014.
It's 2022, almost, what, eight years.
Man, it takes, it took me eight years still to get here.
And I don't still feel like I have stepped into the prime yet. Like I'm still learning, learning my voice, learning different dynamics on stage.
You see what I'm saying? But man, it takes time. That's why a lot of people, when I get
into my new set, because I'm about to be done with the No Cap comedy tour, I'm headlining
this arena tour. This is my first time headlining.
It's my second time headlining with Wild N' Out,
but the actual stand-up bit.
This is my first time
headlining an arena tour,
and we've been selling out
everywhere we go.
Shout out Lil Duval,
Carlos Miller,
Chico Bing,
Black Run,
B. Simone,
D. Ray Davis,
Michael Blackson.
We're going crazy.
It took me time just to get here.
And the new era right now, they record everything.
Right.
I got to tell people, this is how comedy works.
It takes us time to build sets, material, because we tweak it.
Every time we go on stage, we be like, ah, we like that.
Okay, we like that.
We're critiquing. Every time we go on stage, we be like, ah, we like that. Okay, we like that. We're critiquing.
Every time we go, we're adding and taking something out.
So when you see it, when you see somebody do a perfect set, they work.
They ask to get this set.
Sometimes people be thinking, oh, people just funny.
They just coming off the top of their head.
No, I told you.
This is psychological.
Some of these folks been saying that maybe two, three years.
They been working on it.
They never was saying it like that the first two years.
So when people record, majority back then,
when somebody has a set back then when the OG was doing it,
they had maybe like one or two sets that had been taking them this far
for so long.
Once you get a major set, you can travel 10 years with it.
Now that they're recording that set, somebody on Facebook.
You're going to say, now you done heard that, your front chair.
But this is the thing.
You done showed somebody on Facebook.
Somebody else done came to your show.
They done showed somebody on Facebook.
Somebody else done came to your show.
They done showed somebody on Facebook.
The person on Facebook done seen your show five times before they actually came and seen you in person.
So now when they come see you in person, they done heard it five, six times because y'all done took
the whole dynamic of the show away from
the consumer. You see what I'm saying?
But it actually takes time for people to
build sex.
Have you ever forgot a joke?
Hell yeah.
Hell yeah. But that's where
the professionalism. See, early stage,
I put around and
I don't like kids do this. This is before, I don't like kids to do this. This is
before, and I don't want kids to do this now.
I was still in the streets, coming off the streets,
trying to understand what a professional is.
I was on stage,
put around, pop the pill.
Oh, you popped the pill on stage? Listen, this was
my beginning time. I wasn't getting no money.
My first year and a half, I didn't get no money.
You shouldn't be getting no money. Yeah, I was.
Yeah, I should definitely not be getting no money.
I popped a pill, went on stage.
This was like a little workout room.
There was probably like 12 people in there.
I go on stage.
I was like, yeah, what's going on, y'all?
I forgot what the fuck I was.
I forgot.
That quick?
That quick.
I was so geeked up on stage.
Nigga, I just went rambling and talking.
And when I got off stage, the comedian, the host came up,
buzzed me in the head like he's supposed to do.
Because you're always supposed to talk about a person when they ain't do good.
You feel what I'm saying?
But I learned then, stop playing with this crap.
Right.
You ain't in the streets no more.
You can't treat it like the streets.
Right.
You got to be a person.
I'm telling you, look yourself in the mirror. Stop playing
with this God-given talent. That ain't the way to do it. Stop doing all that. Really got myself
clean. Made sure I did the homework and got on stage and here we are today. You ever got booed?
So what are those silent, those long, silent looks?
What are they like?
As a professional, you got to keep going.
Even when the joke don't work.
Right.
A joke don't work, they might laugh a little bit.
You better keep the fuck going.
Keep going.
Go to something that works.
Right.
You see what I'm saying?
Because sometimes with comedians, we'll try to fit in something new in between just to see what works or not.
And if a joke don't hit, you got to go to something that works.
Do you try your jokes
out on the homies or somebody before you get both?
Yeah, all comedians do.
We talk as comedians.
We be up there, man, listen, man,
shout it last night, right?
Not long, we are formulating our whole
setup, the punchline. We're doing all that
because as comedians, this is how we
naturally practice. We practice amongst our people. And comedians, this is how we naturally practice. Right.
We practice amongst our people.
And even when they around and they say something funny,
we add that to our material.
Right.
Most definitely.
What's the toughest city
to perform in?
Ooh.
Ooh, I love them too.
The most gangster cities ever.
My city.
My city, of course.
Atlanta.
Yes.
St. Louis.
Mm-hmm.
Detroit.
I think I want to say that's Texas.
Texas.
Because they solid.
They solid.
They love you.
They love you.
And if you trash, you trash.
Ain't no coming back.
Ain't no coming back. You can't come back to Texas trash, you trash. Ain't no coming back for you. Ain't no coming back.
You can't come back to Texas.
You're trash.
You're not coming back.
But I want to say Atlanta, St. Louis, Detroit.
Detroit has a comedy circuit that's so solid.
Like, it ain't nothing but some real ones that come out of Detroit.
Right.
And if you can go to Detroit or St. Louis, for real, for real.
Oh, and Chicago.
Chicago. Chicago doesn't
accept everybody. But A, we
love comedy shows. A, we love comedy
shows because we comedians. The niggas in the
crowd are comedians. Man, every
comedy show sold out.
You have one at State Farm,
it's going to be sold out. I don't care who it is.
Everybody in there is in the building because we just love to laugh.
That's just our southern, I guess, hospitality.
Yes.
You feel me?
When you heard T.I. was going to do comedy, what were your first thoughts?
I mean, anybody that's willing to put their mind to it can do it.
You feel what I'm saying?
And he's really been doing his thing.
And for the situation to happen in New York.
Brooklyn, yes.
In Brooklyn.
He come right back to the city, to Atlanta the next day and rip it in the arena.
You don't understand.
To take that, what happened in New York.
Right.
To take it as a comedian.
Right.
That, that's like getting sent to the hospital and coming back from rehab, man.
You got to start all over.
Because you have to understand, it's different.
T.I. was this international known rapper.
Which still is.
Yes.
Which still is.
And now you go, you subject yourself.
I'm going to start from the bottom floor.
They boo this man.
He say, I don't care.
I don't even care.
But you got to understand the confidence to have as a comedian to do that.
And then not only that, come right back.
Some people take a minute before they come back on stage.
They be like, man, I can't deal with that.
You come right back, get the love, get the appreciation, the people seen,
and actually not only do that, but come on stage and kill it too and went crazy.
It just show like, oh, he's ready to even be a comedian because that's it right there.
That ain't nothing else
happening as a comedian.
Only up from now.
But see, I ain't built like that.
I'm only going to do things that I'm good at.
See?
I ain't doing anything.
But see, that's the thing with superstars.
Sometimes we get so frustrated
with our talents,
we want everybody to see them.
Right.
So that's just like me.
I want you to see me at my best
because you always see me.
I was a football player.
You only saw me at my best. I can't let you see me at my best. Because you always see me at my best. I was a football player.
You only saw me at my best.
I can't let you see me at my worst.
You see, sometimes the people got to learn that though.
And see, if I would have known Michael Jordan didn't make the basketball team, he got actually
like got cut.
Right.
I won the trip when I got cut.
Because I never got cut.
Right.
I always made the team.
Right. So until the moment when I got cut,
I lost my mind.
I'm like,
would you even look at him?
Like, would you?
And he ain't even better than me.
Why you keep him?
Right.
Like, you kept him.
Like, I never, ever got cut.
But if I would have known
Michael Jordan got cut,
I would have been like,
okay, he even happened
to the greats.
I just got to stick in there.
Let me ask you,
when fans start heckling,
Right.
how do you handle that?
Do you like, all right now, okay now,
I'm the comedian, I got the microphone.
That's your warning.
You got the mic.
Nobody should ever without no mic
over talk you. Right. Ever.
In life. I don't care what it is.
I will be more agitating than you.
I will, ah, you deaf.
You hear me?
You're not going to get me. But I come
from that street structure
of comedy. Like, okay,
this is our comedy. The heckler
ain't doing nothing but quote unquote trying to be
a badass. He want to talk about somebody.
Let me shut him up, embarrass
him in front of the entire crowd. Not only
embarrass him, embarrass who he came with.
Right.
Just to show that not only what you do affect your people.
Right.
And everybody that's around you, the people that sit next to you, the car you drove in,
everything is affected.
Right.
When you trying to be a bully bad ass.
Right.
So that's how you have a heckles.
You just got to tear their ass up.
You.
Sometimes they like it, though.
Oh, they like it.
Yeah, sometimes they come for that shit.
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Last year,
somebody came up on the stage.
Man, what happened?
That's what I'm trying to figure out.
Oh, shit.
I don't know.
What'd they say?
I mean, I would say they're like,
man, DC Young Fly gets with a fan.
What?
That's what you heard?
Yeah, that's how you put them 55s on it.
Damn, how many? 55. Damn, I don't know that's how you put them 55s on it. Damn.
How many?
55.
Damn.
I don't know if it was that many.
I don't know.
Damn.
So, somebody comes up.
So what are you thinking?
I mean, you just thought, okay, dude's going to come up to me and give me some pound, going
to dab me up.
He going to go sit down?
I'm going to be 100.
I'm going to be 100.
You know, coming from doing the 85 South show, I'm always used to, I come from the hood,
so we show love.
We're aggressive.
Yeah.
What I love.
I don't care what it is.
Sometimes we just aggressive what I love.
That's cool.
Get in here, Ian.
I'm not intimidated by that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Right, right.
Let's go.
Right.
Let's go.
Show the bump.
Let's, ah!
We're going to show the bump each other out.
I'm doing my show.
He comes up.
I'm thinking he a fan.
Right.
Because I'm like, I ain't bad.
Yeah.
So, I go to like embrace the crazy shit. You feel me?
But not only was I thought I was
about to embrace the crazy nigga,
I got hit. Like, he kind of like hit
my hand. Yeah, man, this shit was crazy.
I know.
You about to show love.
He knocked my hand down.
He knocked my hand down. Once he knocked my hand
down in my head, I said,
boy, he hit you.
I know. How you go from that He knocked my hand down. Once he knocked my hand down, in my head, I said, boy, he hit you. I love it.
How you go from that to that?
Yeah, that was it.
That's all I heard.
When he hit me, I be like, ooh, he hit me.
And shit, whatever you heard, that what happened.
In a situation, let's just say for the sake of argument.
Right.
Young Fly hosting the Oscars.
Right.
He makes a joke.
Right.
Somebody takes offense,
they come up on,
I mean,
because in that setting,
you have to understand now,
you do your comedy show,
you in a hoodie,
you in jeans,
you know what I'm saying,
you in sneaks,
but you're just the Oscars.
Right.
You in tux. Right. Velvet, you velvet, top of the line name brand designer.
You're not expecting this.
So when you make a joke about somebody's significant other,
and that person gets up out the seat and walks up on the stage,
what is Young Fly thinking?
Okay.
Now, I fuck with both parties.
Yes.
I'm a fan of both
parties' art. They're both legends in my eyes.
No matter even the situation that happens,
it doesn't affect
their legacy in my eyes. Right.
Yeah, I'm still going for it.
But that need to be the narrative. Yeah.
They try to drag it and go all the way down. Right. It shouldn't affect
their legacy. I'm going to see Chris Rock when he come on
and I'm going to see Will Smith if he do another movie.
Facts. Most definitely. We're going to support both of them.
But if you want to dissect it, let it be real.
Let it be grown men.
Okay.
All right.
Let it be grown men.
Okay.
All right.
The joke can be broken down in multiple ways if you're intellectual and understand.
Okay.
Have you ever seen G.I.
Jane?
Yes.
Okay.
They see it.
G.I.
Jane.
Give me more.
Play G.I.
Jane.
G.I. Jane had an entanglement They said G.I. Jane. Demi Moore played G.I. Jane. G.I. Jane had
an entanglement in the
movie. I didn't know that. So a lot of people
who ain't seen G.I. Jane don't know that
maybe that would have been the angle he took.
So for those who don't know that angle,
they only seen the ball head.
The ball head angle. So
we don't know how close
of enough friends they are
for that to be a joke about my significant other.
Right.
Or even if, do we joke like this off camera?
Right.
You feel what I'm saying?
If we joke like this off camera, they cool.
Right.
They ain't tripping.
But if we don't joke like this off camera,
why we got to do it on camera?
But he said a joke earlier.
Right.
But remember when Will Smith boycotted Oscar
because he said there wasn't enough inclusiveness or diversity right and jada said she was going
boycott too right chris rock said well ain't ain't nobody invite jada right understood but see for me
i think will this is years of people saying he'll wax will smith was the first rapper to get a Grammy. Everybody says his rap is soft.
But here he is. He goes
from the
rapper, the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, to a
box office. Facts. Facts.
Still feel that he doesn't get
the credit. They're making jokes. Everybody's making
jokes. What's that entanglement? You're making jokes too.
I'm going to be one. I'm going to be one.
I'm going to be one. I made
one too.
I made one. Everybody made one too. I made one.
Everybody made one.
But let's just say he's human.
Is he not allowed to be emotionally frustrated?
Not on me.
I'm saying that.
Not on me.
Not on me.
He sure cannot.
He absolutely cannot on me.
No.
Fly, that ain't gonna happen.
You better walk your ass down that way.
Listen,
okay, I understand.
But what I'm saying is, he's human.
He's emotionally frustrated.
Now, and this is what also I took in.
Here's a man who is
also motivated by his
wife. Yeah.
Now, you got the clip of them laughing it off, right?
At first.
At first.
He was laughing.
Right, right.
We don't know what the hell happened when they took the camera off.
You know he looked at her.
And when he looked at her, that's just like you shooting a jump shot, right?
You about to shoot a free throw.
You got the jittery bug.
You like, man, I'm about to miss this motherfucker.
Then I look over there at my girl, she's like, you better make this motherfucker.
You know what I am finna make this motherfucker.
Yeah, God.
That's what I felt.
Like, he was like,
ha ha, damn, that's crazy.
Wow.
Wow.
He looked at his wife
and was like,
you're right.
I should go up there
and hit that motherfucker.
Like, that's what I felt
that for.
But, now let's take it
in the OG Chris Rock.
We gonna speak some real.
Can I speak some real?
Yeah, do that.
That's what we do.
All right.
The way we handle situations,
I felt like the way it was handled,
it was handled with class a little bit.
Just a little bit. Yeah, it was.
Because at the end of the day,
stuff like that happen all the time in the hood,
but it's really supposed to be like a broad situation.
I don't care where we at,
what's going on. Damn this, Mike.
Yeah, I believe any place
other than the Oscars.
But this is what I'm saying. The Oscars owe Chris Rock.
Yeah.
They owe Chris Rock. He kept y'all, quote unquote, legacy.
Yeah.
Name a lot.
Chris Rock will never ask what it is.
Woo!
I mean, you know, the gloves outside.
Just in case y'all want to get it off the chair.
The gloves is outside.
Yes.
You hear me?
Yes.
But if we want to keep it 100, he was like, you know, when it happened, he was like, wow.
Because they had to end the Oscars.
If he'd have reacted like
you or I would have reacted,
the Oscars would have only been
20 minutes long.
It was over with.
A two and a half hour show.
15 minutes.
Yeah.
It was that.
However soon he came in.
So he handled that with care.
He did.
Even though he was like,
God damn it.
I'm going to see you after this.
I can't believe.
But right now.
I can't believe he did that. I can't. No, I'm saying, that's what Chris probably said. Right, right, right, right. I'm going to see you after this. I can't believe it. But right now. I can't believe he did that.
I can't.
No, I'm saying that's what Chris
probably saying.
Right, right, right, right.
I can't believe it.
Because when he said it,
but I'm like,
because I'm thinking like everybody else.
Man, I know this man ain't just walking.
That's a skit.
Man, that boy,
that boy, that boy,
I'm listening.
The Oscars are on him.
The Oscars are on him.
That's why he said, man, listen,
I'm going to worry about Will later.
Oscars,
y'all need to pay me.
Because I kept y'all show alive, y'all name alive, and I handled this for class.
He did.
I just got slapped.
Nigga, y'all.
On national television.
You know how mad I would have been at the Oscars?
You know how mad I want to fuck this motherfucker up?
Hey.
I saved this.
Somebody wash my feet, please.
I'm trying to figure out where.
Right now.
You know ain't nowhere we ever at.
Somebody can walk up and slap somebody.
Nobody.
In the day of life.
I don't care if you ain't the gangster or nothing.
Somebody going to be trying to get hurt.
Yes.
You handled that with class.
And it was like, you know what?
I'm going to deal with it later, man.
I got a job to do.
Oscars, I'm going to call that child in a minute.
They keep going.
Run the teleprompter.
You feel what I'm saying?
So I got to sit there and say, you know what?
My boy handled that with class. He did.
Take your hat off to her. Let me ask you.
Your style. Who
are some of your favorite comedians?
Bernie Mac, Kate Williams,
Mike Kemp, Kevin Hart,
you know what I'm saying? Tony Robbins,
Carlos Miller.
These are like my favorites.
Like the ones I watch. Earthquakes.
You know what I'm saying? Even women.
Samoa.
Monique.
Like, people
gotta understand. When you're studying the game,
you gotta... I like Adele Gilders, too. Adele is fire.
It's a lot of... I can
really sit down and say, which one's
my favorite? Because I like them all.
If you make me laugh, you can sit in the favorite.
You've done what you're
supposed to do. You've done it.
So it's like, I sit there and I study the game
and I just sit there and take what everybody
has brought to the game and I'm like, oh, this is what she
does. This is their angle. This is how they set
it up. That's why that was so funny.
You feel what I'm saying? But my favorite all
time, all time
got to be Burning Man. If I can sit and have any conversation with any comedian, I'm saying? But my favorite all time, all time, got to be Burning Man.
If I can sit and have any conversation with any comedian.
Burning would like that.
Hoo!
I got it.
Because I know he would have kept it so real.
All the way.
He would have kept it all the way 100.
DC!
Fuck everybody that I want to eat.
Oh, fuck off.
You say, what the fuck you want to say?
That's.
I would like.
All right.
Is that the natural transition
because we saw it
with Richard Pryor?
Right.
We've seen it with Eddie Murphy.
We see it with Kevin Hart.
Right.
We see it with so many comedians.
Right.
Start out doing the stand-up
and then transition to television.
Right.
Is that something that you saw
or it just happened?
I just wanted to do the music
and I always wanted to act.
I never saw myself
telling jokes in front of people.
I always seen myself in front of people, but it was for either music or I'm doing theater.
But I'm not telling jokes.
That was not a form of a profession to us in the hood.
You see a dope, play sports or do the other stuff.
You feel me?
But once I realized this is what I'm supposed to be doing,
like, it was way easier for me
to just be like,
I want to be a comedian
and all of a sudden the light shine.
Right.
Like, that was all I was missing.
And it's less dangerous, too.
Yeah.
But, I mean,
as you can see,
where we...
I don't know that.
It goes down.
You feel what I'm saying?
But it's...
When you can bring a group of people and make them forget
about everything that they're going through,
you're doing God's work.
You know what to do. Hit the subscribe
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