I was a very cocky and unlikable young comic. But I came from the hood, and that's what I learned.
Acting is reacting. That's when acting is great - when you say something, somebody said something, they make a face, they pose, they use something physical, then you react to that, then they react to you.
Well, the hard part about doing auditions is that the person reading you the lines, they're not really into it. They're just going, 'Oh really, so why do you think that?' And they're just looking at a piece of paper.
The beauty of not growing up middle class is that you don't think like the middle class. You don't have anything to protect, you know what I mean?
I'm like most people in America. I'm conservative on some things, and I'm liberal on other things.
If I've got a black joke, and I can't tell it in Oakland, then I shouldn't tell the joke anywhere else.
Here's the problem: People have completely and utterly forgotten one thing when it comes to communication - intent.
I had one guy say, 'I watched your show and didn't agree with what you said.' And I'm like, 'It's a joke. How could you not agree? I can understand you saying it's not funny.' But it's like my going onstage and doing a knock-knock and somebody going, 'I disagree. There's no door here.'
I was only 20, 21. I was basically going to college to get me out of the ghetto. A friend suggested I try stand-up.
Before I got into stand-up, I was a really quiet guy who had all these thoughts, all these things I wanted to say, but there was never anyplace for me to say them because my mom would look at me and go, 'You better not say what you're thinking. You better not.'
I worked as a comedian for 23 years, 51 weeks a year.
When I'm onstage, I'm on, but a different part of me is on: the part of me that absorbs life, sees everything occurring, and touches on everything around me.
The really funny thing is that most all of my friends who are priests have seen me perform, and they say, 'I wish I could talk the way you do on stage. I wish I could reveal truth to my congregation the way you do.'
What I do is that I really, really try hard to make sure the things that I do comes from a pure place in my heart and my intent is a pure one.
You can take my dirtiest, craziest joke, and I can break down in my head why there's a good, honest, honorable reason for telling it.
I'm not good looking, but I'm not bad looking.
I don't think I push boundaries. I find that other people feel that way. To me, it's just about going up there and speaking the truth, whatever that is.
When I'm performing for 4,000, 5,000 people, it's a show. It's a rock n' roll concert.
Chicago is pretty much my favorite city to perform in. For some reason, people from the Chicago area have an amazing attitude.
I don't think Latino; I think like me. If that happens to be Latino, then I guess that's me. But it doesn't affect my comedy in any way.
