Comedy Stages: Ray Money's Journey
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, you are now tuned in and watching unqualified qualifications with me. Me, it's your host, comedian V Mac. And today, I'm with one of my comic friends. It's been all around this country, traveled everywhere, done everything down there. He's working on more.
Speaker 1:My man, comedian Ray money. Tell everybody what up Ray.
Speaker 2:What up? What up? What up? What's up everybody? Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm comedian Ray money, I guess. Sometimes you know, we're always working out like that every night.
Speaker 1:And what are you at night?
Speaker 2:Hey man. I'm a comic some nights. I'm an artist other night.
Speaker 1:Three Up there just sweating. So what's going on, man. What's new was how how's life been going?
Speaker 2:Man, it's coming along, Struggling, struggling.
Speaker 1:How are you struggling?
Speaker 2:Zero Man, that's it man. Working everyday, man. It's always a struggle, man.
Speaker 1:All right. So let's get a little bit in-depth into the comedian Ray money. So first of all, let everybody know that is your name.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's me.
Speaker 1:Let me say, cause people be like Ray money. That's your stage name.
Speaker 2:No, man. That's my, that's my real name. So I'm a junior actually Ray money junior. Yeah. So, yeah, that's it.
Speaker 2:Where are from? Troy, Alabama.
Speaker 1:All right. How long, where, how, when did you come to North Carolina?
Speaker 2:I got up here what 02/2008. So
Speaker 1:how long were you in Troy? What did you went to high school in Troy college and all that?
Speaker 2:Yeah. I went to a, I went to high school in Troy and some college in Troy. I mean, I had college, a lot of places.
Speaker 1:You're a career college guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man. Was.
Speaker 1:So what made you go into comedy? Like how did you turn the curve from Troy to North Carolina? When, when did the comic bug hit you? And when did you realize you were funny? Like early in life?
Speaker 1:How did that work?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I mean, people have always told me, but I ain't thinking nothing of it. So I, you know, it's just, just something that people tell you and it's like, oh man, you funny. And you don't think nothing of it. So it's been, I don't know, like it's pretty much all my life.
Speaker 2:I mean, I've watched comedy over the years, watched comic view as a kid and pretty much most of your comedy stuff. I mean, I think comedy was probably the most impactful because my mom and them used to watch it in the other room and I used to come look around the corner.
Speaker 1:It was clean comedy. You wouldn't
Speaker 2:Yeah. Well my parents weren't like that, man. They, my mom and them locked up a ludicrous CD. Well that's difference.
Speaker 1:You locked up a ludicrous CD.
Speaker 2:They locked up my sister ludicrous CD.
Speaker 1:For what? Cause it was too racy.
Speaker 2:Yeah. My, this was, we was in high school and my sister was like, she had a thing when was in the first
Speaker 1:back for the first time.
Speaker 2:I guess so. I think it was the one with your fantasy on it. Yeah. My daddy caught a hold of it, caught wind of it. He'd have locked it in the toolbox and in the garage.
Speaker 2:Now we really want it.
Speaker 1:Now she's starved for life now. Man. So what pushed you to get on stage? What was the moment? Who, how, where, what?
Speaker 2:To get on stage. I mean, it's part of it. Just the, you know, I've kind of been, I mean, I've been told to be funny and one day I went and tried it out and I kind of fell in love with it. Yeah. I mean, that's pretty much it.
Speaker 2:I mean, fell in love the first time and I kind of just been, been at it. Bad. Since then that's pretty much it.
Speaker 1:So you was doing open mics before you went to the comedy school?
Speaker 2:No. I mean, I didn't go to the comedy school until maybe like
Speaker 1:four years ago.
Speaker 2:Like I took, well, I can't say that maybe.
Speaker 1:Well, the first time I met you, you had went in and never came back. You didn't, you didn't go again.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Was twenty thirteen. Did. I went, maybe I went, I wanted to be in the class, but at the time I couldn't afford the class.
Speaker 1:You was just skipping into class.
Speaker 2:No, I went to, I went to the class and I, and I did the little introduction. They told us, I was like, I heard there was going to be a class. I just showed up and they said how much it was going to cost. And so I, I kind of just bounced. I ain't come back.
Speaker 2:I said, I'm gonna have to figure this shit out of my home.
Speaker 1:So you started hitting open mics after that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That was pretty much it then, but I didn't, but I started hitting open mics before then. So my very first time even thinking about comedy, I went, there was a place in, was it Fort Mill? And I think what's the name of the place? Madison's or something like that.
Speaker 1:It was just like a restaurant. Right?
Speaker 2:No, this was, I don't know what you talking about. This was next door. There was a bar next door. And then there was like a little, basically like one of the hotel meeting rooms, like there's basically like that, but it had a stage in it. It was real small and kinda long.
Speaker 2:So was, and Chris Corrado was hosting, open mic, I think him and who else was there? That's the only person I remember maybe Will Jacobs maybe. But, he was there at least one other night posting, but they would end up hosting. Just came in, when I first did, I was just watching people go up and I was like, man, everybody wasn't doing so good. I was like, mean, I can fit in if I don't do good.
Speaker 2:I mean, ain't gonna be no difference. I knew I could do better than that. And, so I, at first there wasn't, there was nobody really in there, mostly comics. And then I guess whatever happened and then people, they laid in from the bar next door and it was probably maybe about 20 people in there. So now it was already small little room, so it felt packed.
Speaker 2:So I got on stage and this was the first time on stage. I just random stuff. I hadn't planned no comp plan on going on stage. I was just watching. And actually Chris had came over and asked, Hey man, you wanna go up?
Speaker 1:Just for no reason.
Speaker 2:I guess I just looked like I wanted to go up, but he asked me and then I went up and I, they let them people in and I didn't bomb. So I got a few laughs and that was, that was it. I just kind of been at it.
Speaker 1:How did you feel when you got up to stage the first time? I
Speaker 2:don't really know. I mean, it was just, oh, this was, this was really fun. I enjoyed it. I mean, I don't know if I knew this was going to be the thing I'll be doing today, but yeah, it kinda, it kinda worked out again. It's a working out, I
Speaker 1:guess maybe. So you, you, after that, you just started hitting the roads. How was it getting shows? How did you, how did you blend from open mic or to getting on shows and getting around us basically how we all linked up. But Speaker
Speaker 2:Oh man. Just started hitting every mic possible. That was me. I mean, have a, I have a work ethic and I'm I'll just go. So that was pretty much been from my, any open, anytime I can hit a mic, I go every stage that I possibly could, could to work on material.
Speaker 2:And then, you know, you meet people like yourself and other comics that you meet around and you, they they're as active as you are, then you see them at all the mics. And I just, I just didn't stop. That's pretty much it.
Speaker 1:So when did the writing come into the play?
Speaker 2:I've kind of I was, when was the, probably the first time I used to go on stage and I, at first I would just do what would first come to my mind. And I re I did a shoot, it was at the vibrations and it probably was between Maurice and talent and all them. I would start the stuff that I was thinking about. I was like, okay, I should think about more tutor shit. And I would write that down and then, all right, I'd write the next line down of something I may just be roasting or talking about.
Speaker 2:And then I'd feel from that point, just kinda fill in from there. So that's pretty much been my, my writing style comes from the roast sessions or things that I'm talking or thinking about. And more lately since I haven't, I ain't, when I'm traveling, I'm generally by myself a lot of times. That way for I forgot it's being released. I got that shit on me too.
Speaker 2:What I got that mother.
Speaker 1:Yeah. He be by himself. Y'all come get him.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I got that 5 or you go get yourself.
Speaker 1:This money. Gonna make you some change.
Speaker 2:Nah, anyway, I'll be, I'll be saying that, I genuinely by myself. So it's not a way to roast with people. And so I just would think about what other people would say back to me. So I'm basically having a conversation with myself to, to create the material. And I just kind of been doing it that way from, from
Speaker 1:from that boy handout. So how is the business of comedy to you? Like from being an open micer to getting on shows, when did the business part come into play with you?
Speaker 2:Pretty early on. So man, this, I come from a business background. That was the, while I was doing this, doing started coming. Was already in banking at that point I was working at the bank. So I've, I've kind of learned over the years I used to do a, I used to do what's the, the telephone company thing, ACN, the network marketing thing.
Speaker 2:And, I wasn't very good at that, but I got a chance to meet other business. Cause a lot of the people that was doing this network marketing stuff, were a lot of business owners. So I didn't, I didn't learn how to do that well, but I, I was around a lot of business owners. So I got a chance to listen to them talk. And I, you start to learn the language of what they talking about and how, and then eventually you get some people that if you ask for questions, I learned that if you just ask somebody to tell you that's been the, and from that point, I've just kind of been piecing
Speaker 1:it together. I feel you. So you doing the business thing. So you started running shows, you started doing, how did that come about in with the shows you was running in Gastonia?
Speaker 2:Oh, in Gastonia? Well, most of I'm doing producing some shows right now in a few cities, in Troy, Alabama, 1 in Spindale, North Carolina. I was producing one in Gastonia, but all of these locations kind of stemmed from me needing a place to work out material. Just from doing it so long, it's been, you know, you get younger comers that come in and then they it's the stage time to be able to work out the length of material that I need to work out or just get the reactions that I need. The space wasn't conducive for that.
Speaker 2:So I started trying to, I originally just started just like, all right, let me just do an open mic. But, and I, and I started in my, in Troy and there wasn't really many people that came out. So I ended up just doing like a hour of just material myself. And it was, it kind of, it felt good. I'm like, all right, well maybe I should just bring, make this kind of like a little show and I host it and I just book other comics hearing from around the area.
Speaker 2:At the time I didn't know many comics in the area like that. So I just, I have a couple of comics there up here. I was able to bring them down, but that's pretty much was, was it. I was just trying to find a space to work out material that at the places that I was already going. I got family there.
Speaker 2:So I go there every month to visit family. So I'm like, all right, wherever I'm going, if I can find a venue or somewhere where I can work out my material, I just produce a show there. And then, know, just kind of, working out like with, we work with the, small business development center.
Speaker 1:I wish that,
Speaker 2:especially small business support is, offered through, the state. They have, basically, the state gives money to, different colleges and that, that basically there's a group that the small business development center and they actually are state funded and they help small existing small businesses or start up small business. And they help you with stuff from establishing LLC to pointing you like, we've been working with, Felicia Williams in, at the Gaston college. She's just been directing us for people to help us with website and marketing as a free service for anybody that's more interested. But if you can just go type in small business development, there's, they've got this place in other states too.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I mean, we've been just working with them for the last year and a half to try to help us formulate the business. From the business aspect on my end, I mean, I've just been piecing shit together. That's it. I mean, from being in banging, I learned that none of these places, none of the companies just from working in the industry and talking with the people, nobody has it all figured out. They're constant because business is constantly changing.
Speaker 2:So people, I usually, when I tell someone that, yo, they interested in a startup look, just start because you ain't, whatever you write down in your paper, not gonna be the thing unless you just amazingly tell that all these features, it may happen, but it may not happen in necessarily that order. So I just keep whacking at it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So you've been going at it for a long time. So let me ask you a question. This is something I always wanted to know, especially from your point of view. What's the difference between doing colleges,
Speaker 2:the casinos and the actual clubs? Oh man. That's a, just the different genres of comedy and being the all different audiences. That's pretty much for the most part, it is. The colleges they're different, they're different demographics.
Speaker 2:So, and even within that, there's a different culture within those different demographics. So if you look at a college performing for a college, most of these students are anywhere from, let's just say, I'll just say 17 to 30 with a majority of the, depending on the type of college, it could be, if it was a community college and maybe a more mature audience and you may have some that are 25 to 30 and mixed in there. But if you're doing just the more of a university, then you will have more kids in there consider, you know, young adults, starter adults, starter kids. They, they, shit is the young, they students, they learn in life. So you gotta change your material to at their understanding level.
Speaker 2:So like if I'm talking to a casino crowd, it's a more older crowd. They would understand just as a whole divorce on a different level than someone that's experiencing it at the level. Most of those, the students, if I've talked about it, I'm just using it as an example. If I talk about divorce, to a college level, most of them have experienced it as kid. So they've only experienced, they haven't experienced actually going through a divorce versus the adults on this end and the older mature crowd they've may have experienced it either on both ends or just one end where they've gotten divorced and they may not experience.
Speaker 2:They're experiencing. So how you talk about it would, would determine on how they understand it. So that's kind of the, you're looking from their viewpoint when I start to create the material. If I'm talking about a college, then I'm creating it from the viewpoints or something that they can understand, even though it's my, it'll be my story or whatever it may be. Or if it's just a joke that I'm talking about, they can understand it from there.
Speaker 2:Because when you look, when I look out into an audience, I understand there's different levels and intelligence that are in the audience at all at one time. And all of those audiences come from different backgrounds. So me, when I talk about stuff, I try to make sure that I have me in there a little bit if nothing else. And then I developed it from the people understanding what I'm talking about. You gotta know what I'm talking about first at whatever level that may be.
Speaker 2:If it's like an umbrella that I'm talking about, or I'm talking about a local store or whatever it may be, then that's generally where my writing comes from. And then from that point, I just kind of start roasting whatever, and then I'll put whatever story line that may happen from me being around that place or being in that place. And yeah, that's pretty much it.
Speaker 1:Do you write sets per situation? Like say, write, you write a college set? Do you write a casino set? Do you write a club set?
Speaker 2:Man, I'll be honest with you. That has not been me. I've just been going because I have so much, so many jokes and that's been, and so it just, it has changed over the years because I've, I've, I've been forced to, like with producing shows. I've been doing it. Like I was, I was doing three shows.
Speaker 2:I was doing three shows, Gastonian, Spindale and, and Troy Alabama. These are my workout rooms. So I was doing anywhere from between forty five minutes. Well, I would say sometimes I would bring it down to like twenty, thirty minutes being if I had guests, but anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour, to an hour of just me upfront. And sometimes I've been having to have where other, like these are returning people at these shows.
Speaker 2:Cause in Troy, was doing two shows, same night. I'll do an early show and a late show. The first show would be some of the new people that I've never seen one, but always late show. There'll be the people that came last month. So I gotta
Speaker 1:have some new shit,
Speaker 2:which that terrified me at first, but then I was like, all right, well now what I can do is as I'm coming over this and some of this will be me just, I'm gonna freestyle. I'm a workout that hosting muscle. All right, I'm a host and I'm a freestyle. And then I'll pull material from this upfront. So we're having two shows.
Speaker 2:That means the first show in Troy, I gotta do, I can I'd have the opportunity to do some older material or I can do this brand new material, work it out for this, work it out in this audience and then work it out in this audience in front of people that have come to the last show. Then from there, I leave there the next week. Have Gastonia. These will be some of the same people. We'd have some new people, then also some of the same people that will return the next month.
Speaker 2:So now I'm working out this same material one, two, I'm working out the same material, not all the same material, but I'm pulling pieces from it. And then at adding to it from the writing piece, I gotta listen to the set and I gotta add to it. And then, then now I can take it to this other venue. I'm adding pieces in there. So you, I was, it came from doing the colleges because I learned my very first time going through the college that, that, that shit wasn't good.
Speaker 2:It wasn't nice. What happened? Cause you, you learned that all right. You learned that they don't understand. Cause I had, I was used to doing the clubs and the casino, there's much more older crowds.
Speaker 2:And I, I learned that when you go to the colleges, these, they shy, they knew everybody like you was in high school, you were the kids. Still got the kid's spirit.
Speaker 1:The first experience being out there in a comedy show or something.
Speaker 2:And a comedy show. So even the reaction in it, the engagement with them is different. So I'm having to, I'm having to like for a while, you know, was sitting down for a minute and I just sit and I just do stories from the, from the seat. Then, but it made me get up on my feet. I gotta, I gotta get them out of their own self.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Them engaged, get them engaged. So now I'm talking with them and then also, you know, trying to make, they sit in little corners. Cause sometimes all these college shows, they wouldn't be just in fancy. Some of them in like a a theater and then some of them in like a lunch room and then some of them in a, yeah, man.
Speaker 2:I did one and this is university of Pikeville and this is in Pikeville could tell you had the population. It's very beautiful campus by the way. Had so many students and this is because they get a lot of sports scholarship stuff that come out there and they had so many students. They had bought a hotel. I think it was the Marriott or something like that.
Speaker 2:They bought the Marriott to house the other, the excess students. Wow. So the students were living in this hotel basically. And at the bottom they had to convert it into, they converted the lobby area into a restaurant, like there for the students. So it was like there.
Speaker 2:And so they brought me in and I told jokes next to the fireplace and down here in this lobbyrestaurant area. Hey man, it was cool, man. They had a good time. And then that was part of the concept with me. I'm like, and the way that I've had, we had to do it there.
Speaker 2:It was kind of the, along with the trying to just figure out a place to wear out materials and started putting shows where we, anywhere somebody sit around and gather up in a circle.
Speaker 1:Yeah. You gotta get how we live. Yeah, man. So why was it so terrifying to try new stuff off in those situations? Like how would you wanna show, try the new stuff off open mic in it or like you said, was terrified to for the second show.
Speaker 1:I mean the first show you was using a new material, but the second show you wasn't. So why was it so terrifying
Speaker 2:that you scared You mean for when I was doing the route, you mean college? Oh, Troy that one you're, you want to give the people a new show. That's pretty much what it is. You, you don't want to have your selling people. They don't want to hear the same thing every time that, but I was actually just wanted to make sure that the people had a good show and I'm like, all right, how do I do this each month to, to one fulfill my need of being able to create new material, whether it's for the college casino, whatever.
Speaker 2:And creating rooms would allow me to do that because I can run it how I can do as much time as I want to, or as little time as I want to. I think that's the thing that I see from a lot of comics they have, they're stuck into the format. You gotta do two, three comics or this, or you gotta do this. I found out man, from just doing it in other places and doing it for some big names and little names, it's all different. So you really pretty much make it your own.
Speaker 2:That's why you got, you know, that's pretty much it. You make it your own man. If people wanna come out and watch you, I've seen people do one man show and I've done, that's generally what I do at the college. Couldn't afford to bring nobody with me. So I'm like, I gotta do it all myself.
Speaker 2:And so I was like, all right, I'm gonna,
Speaker 1:how much time they give you at the colleges?
Speaker 2:I do hour. I do maybe a little more over than an hour. But you do figuring out how to is win, lose a draw. Ain't nobody, ain't nobody coming before me or after me.
Speaker 1:So what happens if you do bomb just cause it happens. Right? So what happens when you do bombing couches, do the people who booked it, let you know you suck or do it as like, or is it just like fucking I just go to the show?
Speaker 2:The check clear. I don't know nothing else about that. I mean, you'll get to understand. I mean, I've gotten feedback from like other comments coming because, and I I've actually opened up a few comedy series for some of the colleges. Like we're doing a college y'all had to go to, we used to go to a college conference to book conferences.
Speaker 2:It's basically like the big talent show. You do NAPCA, right? I do APCA. I'd like, I've never done NAPCA, but I've enjoyed doing APCA and it's it's like a big talent show. You come out and you display your talent and then the colleges will, they come into a room and they just put whatever you were asking for up on a board along with other people and they kind of raise their hand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we want him for this day or we want him for that day. And then that's kind of from that point you, and it kind of depends on how you do it. I was doing everything myself. So I've pretty much run the full day agency myself. So I put myself through to actually, but if you have an agent then you would go, your agent would work out whatever deal and travel or whatever it may be.
Speaker 1:So you was booking your own roadshow basically.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man. I do everything now.
Speaker 1:That's the best way to do it. How do you feel about the young comedy scene here?
Speaker 2:I don't know, man. I dip in and out. I come in to work on material at some of the shows. I mean, I liked the union that I see when I go out to a lot of the open mics. See some of the comics at the same, you know, going, going to each other's room.
Speaker 2:But I think it's just like any other comedy scene. You can have some people there that ain't it that's going to take it serious. And then some that will, you know, they just see it for a hobby, it's something they like to do. And I think for the most part, the people that have a goal or a belief or a true belief that they gonna actually do it, they gonna work the hardest and they gonna get the most work. They gonna do the extra stuff of driving hours to go do five minutes on a show or thirty minutes.
Speaker 2:And then, cause you're trying to, you're trying to let people know you are here. So how was, so how
Speaker 1:was your writing game in comparison to theirs? Do you think like they're behind us, even if they like been around for a long time, do you think they've been behind the curve with us? What do you mean? Cause like, remember we was coming in, we was busting three minutes internally. We was doing like five minutes and three minutes at the zone.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying? You remember we used to do the, oh, comedy competitions at the end of fight night. Yeah. And they give us three minutes and we do five and three. So I like when I go out, I'm not trying to knock nobody, but they do a lot of extra talking.
Speaker 1:Right. So do you feel that's the change in comedy now or cause remember we had to get to the funny, like,
Speaker 2:no, I mean, there's a, I mean, it's depending on who they see. I mean, everybody going to have their, their, one of the best things that I did was actually visit, there's a comedy museum and what's the name of the city, Jamestown, New York. Yep. The Lucid Pearl. Correct.
Speaker 2:They have the Lucid ball. The Lucid ball. They've got that in a national college gym. And that was probably, and I just happened to get booked through a college there and I saw there was a museum and it was delightful. Cause you're like, wow, how could I not go?
Speaker 2:And this is here. But I went and I was actually working at the scene. Was working remotely and I wasn't supposed to be in nobody's museum, but I also had the laptop with me and I'm going through the museum. And, but while there you could see the different types of comedy slapstick, whether this is three stooges or Eddie Murphy, they're all different. And from George call everybody's different.
Speaker 2:And from what I see different that let me know that because there's different, that mean there's different people. Those people may or may not like that type of comedy. So it kind of left me with more confidence to do whatever because somebody may like it or may not like it. So you just gotta do what you gonna do that makes you laugh and whoever go fuck with it, gonna fuck with it. That's pretty much true.
Speaker 1:Do you consider yourself a mentor?
Speaker 2:Not really. I mean, I answered questions. I've been, I've been approached to ask and maybe down the line. I don't know.
Speaker 1:You don't know.
Speaker 2:Y'all got kids. They'll tell you now. So what's the,
Speaker 1:no that ain't worth shit. So what's the end game for you in comedy? (twenty one
Speaker 2:Man, I just, I just want to be a tour and to be able to tour as a comic, provide comfortably for my family and then be able to provide comfort for my family with what I'm not doing. So that's pretty much it. Wanna tell jokes. You rather do
Speaker 1:the stage than actually promote a comedy show? What you mean? Like produce it. You rather do the stage.
Speaker 2:I mean at this point mean to actually be active in it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Seem like hitting the road and doing that. Or would you rather just have your own show in one location or those multiple locations, which one is better for you?
Speaker 2:I mean, I like, I like it all. I mean, it's not a, they all have their own purpose. When I'm on the road, I get to because of the, like if I'm at a spots that I run, I'm hosting. So it's a different energy for me. At least any, I don't know about everybody else, but it's a different energy when I'm hosting versus when I'm featuring or headlining, because I know that there's a requirement from me then.
Speaker 2:So if I'm hosting, then I know, of course I'm expected to carry the show, but ultimately when I'm hosting, when I'm thinking about, I'm one working on the material that I have. And I wanna make sure, one, gonna make sure it's a great show. Also work on the material that I need to work, the new material that I need to work on. At least at the shows that I'm running now, work on the material that I need to work on. And then also have enough in the bag in case maybe the feature's not doing as well or even the headliner.
Speaker 2:Cause at the end of the day, even if the expectation, make sure that your headliner does well. And I've not had a problem where they haven't been, but in the event they, well, because I'm running, I'm gonna make sure that I close the show out with everybody having a good time. So that's probably one of the things for me like, all right, the people having a good time. If they having a good time, it really don't matter what else,
Speaker 1:anything else after that point. That's so I'm a comedian just like you and
Speaker 2:I know these, but the, that's where you, there's different versus having them on a comedy show. And then someone coming to see you two very different things. So if you may see like at your local comedy show, like you say, and this is where if you're going to a show, they wanna go and they wanna talk and do to you is laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh. But if you go in to see, well, I guess you still have a good time at all of the shows because they're different styles. Same way like a Dave Chappelle is a long storyteller or is adverts or Ali Sadiq does a longer, they're a storyteller versus someone that's, I don't know, or like a Sean Jones is one, two, three, they pop, pop, pop.
Speaker 2:There's two different styles of comedy. Both of gonna have a good time, but they both different styles. Your fan base will know it. Fan base will know your fan base will know, but that's the thing. The idea is the thought process is that they're that way all at all of the shows, but comments were different at different times.
Speaker 2:So sometimes I'll do a story, a longer story. Then sometimes I'm just, I'm roasting and I'm going boom, boom, boom. But I think that's where you say the different casino, the colleges and the, you gotta have some, some different flavor for everybody. You can't have one flavor for everybody, but all of it is you. You know I'm saying?
Speaker 1:So let me ask you this question. What was your worst time on stage and your best time? Worst time?
Speaker 2:Like you ever get booed off the month? Yeah. Man, look, the problem is, I don't know. I've had some bad ones. You hear me think I tried to block them out.
Speaker 2:Let me see if they did. Yeah. One I've had a mega house and well, this, I don't know this, the, I had a, for those people that don't know the mega house is the Q dogs of Charlotte, man. We Statesville real. Statesville real.
Speaker 2:Man, they used to a long time ago. They used to, you could be BYOB, so you could bring your own bottle. My good old times.
Speaker 1:Bring your own bottle to the comedy show.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And they had a buffet before. Yeah. Buffet before too, man. How could you not enjoy yourself?
Speaker 2:Your own liquor bottle
Speaker 1:and buffet
Speaker 2:buffet and
Speaker 1:they had a bar case.
Speaker 2:Had music after the show and they still actually, they got one this month too. But anyway, I had to got a little too saucy. I done, I done been drinking so much. I done lost the top to my liquor. I'm like, where is my lid?
Speaker 2:And I don't use it, but I mean, we'll be, I'll be, you know, you get the sippy having a good time, you know, and you look, it's a little drip in the bottle.
Speaker 1:And you ain't even been on stage yet.
Speaker 2:Ain't been on stage. And, it was the very first joke he hit hard too. If you know Tito, the Bulls are people that don't know Tito, Tito Coops, man, shout out Tito. He always been looking out for the young comers, man. True.
Speaker 2:I came, he called me, Hey Ray, going up. I came on up and Tito used to always do this entrance and you know, he did lavish entrance. He cool ass brother. And, but Tito, a cute dog, but he he small. He not like big, big, like most most cute dog.
Speaker 2:And so the very first joke I did when I came over, I was like, was like Tito, what I said? I was like, Tito called me and he said, Hey Ray, you need to, to dress up. I was saying some shit. Ray, you need to dress up and he was dressed up and I wasn't. And I was like, man, I don't even know what to wear, man.
Speaker 2:Tito smile as shit. And first of all, Tito throw me out because all this time I'm talking to him. I finally realized that he a cute dog. I thought he would just putting the show on for the cute dog because he was so smart. I said, Tito, it should mess me up because all the cute dogs I know they big, huge mother, big cornbread.
Speaker 2:I like Tito, are you a Q? He's like, yeah, I'm a Q. I was like, Tito must be a lowercase Q. When I tell you the place that, cause this is all, all the, all the amigos in there. They all the smallest, the smallest one in there.
Speaker 2:When I tell you the place erupted, they was in there dying. And then I said some bullshit out there, but I had done drunk so much, man, I ain't know what the next joke was. Hey, and then I couldn't find out later. Somebody told me, and I don't know if this to be true. Ain't know.
Speaker 2:I ain't never asked it, but I think class started to booby man. He started, it's another comic. It started
Speaker 1:the boob. You started it. I don't
Speaker 2:know. That's what I heard, man. But you know, I don't care. It is what it is.
Speaker 1:Sound about right. Cause that, yeah, that was my story. Comic started my booing session. That was wild.
Speaker 2:Hey look, but I mean, it is what it is. This is the, you live and you learn man. Cause shit, I ain't drunk that much for going. I mean, I ain't gonna say I don't drink, but
Speaker 1:Side effect of the craft.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man. You look, Yeah, it is doing the craft, man. You around alcohol all the time. It's hard to And alcoholics. And alcoholics, man.
Speaker 2:Depressed people. Yeah, man. All of they come to the show sad.
Speaker 1:And then they go on stage sad.
Speaker 2:It'd be my job, man. It ain't just that. It'd be the audience member sometime too.
Speaker 1:Wanting us to cheer them up. And they just mad for no reason.
Speaker 2:And this was, I did a alumni thing for JSCU. And as soon as I, before I could even get to the mic, a lady folded her arms up.
Speaker 1:I like, Hey, I fold your arms.
Speaker 2:I ain't cut your AC off in your car. That's your air compressor.
Speaker 1:Don't don't,
Speaker 2:ain't got nothing to do with me.
Speaker 1:What was your best time? The best. The best in your mind.
Speaker 2:Probably the, I don't know, man. They all, they all get the, I had to choose one. I don't know, man. There's a, they all bring what they need to bring when they need to bring it. So like the, when I say that, I mean, first time doing the college stuff was, that was a different experience, but it was exciting because I had never done it.
Speaker 2:It was, and challenging. Do it in from your home people, man. That's the in front of, I guess probably that's it. Probably the best time is doing it in front of my parents. So my parents have come to shows back home and for them to see me perform.
Speaker 2:And then up to this point to, yo, we locked in, we support now. And that was a big part of, you know, continually to be in it, you know, my parents, sister, my wife, yeah. And everybody around me that's, I guess, because, you know, I guess the LC ain't gonna stop. Yeah,
Speaker 1:it's a drug man.
Speaker 2:It is I'm in it. I don't know if it's just, they don't, they don't see them gonna stop, but I'm, my wife's grandmother, she says sometimes you get God wings, God wings. Meaning like you doing something and you know you doing, and so you get the blessing when you need it. So that's pretty much been my, this should been the struggle dawg.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Comedy dudes, comedy is a struggle. Yeah, man. So explain to people, people don't understand this. And I tell people a lot of this sometimes.
Speaker 1:Okay. This is multiple tier questions. So we're gonna first start off with the first part before I get to what I was gonna say. Do crowds make comic suck or do can comic like if you know how they be like, man, the crowd was suck. The crowd was bad today.
Speaker 1:The crowd was bad today. Can't you, you could turn those crowds.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's the comic or is it the crowd that calls it? It's definitely the comic.
Speaker 2:The crowd gonna be the crowd no matter what, what audience, I mean, that's, that's me, man. People, you can give whatever excuse, but it's your job to the, just the crowd. You are the, when you on stage, you run everything from out. Ain't, it's not for me on stage. It used to be just, just the stage.
Speaker 2:When I'm on stage, I'm running everybody, the staff, everybody in my sight, I'm running this room. So if you ain't smile, I'm talking to everybody. It ain't gonna be, I gotta control the whole room because I'm, I'm the ring leader at this point. So this is what you came for. I got here, everybody engaged.
Speaker 2:If this is going to be engaged, I gotta have the staff doing what they doing. The chairs are too loud. It don't matter. I'm going to talk about it. There's people make excuses about the space or whatever it may be.
Speaker 2:If you can make people laugh and you can get the biggest part is getting people's attention and that's the, and them wanting to hear what you gotta say.
Speaker 1:Yeah. You got them in that first moment.
Speaker 2:Even if you don't got them with the joke, you can get them Maurice Rose. I used to watch funny ass brother, man. So Maurice used to, he played the drums. Don't see him brother play the drums and all type of stuff to get the audience on his side or dancing on. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You dance or whatever it may be. But I learned from, from him watching him or watching Sean Jones or Diaz or even you, everything that you do is gonna get a reaction from it. So the, you just learning what react as I watch myself a lot on my standup, or listen to it. So, especially when I start watching to see how people react to me, it is that I'm doing. And from there you, you start to learn, all right, this is my strength, whether it's me roasting or just telling the story.
Speaker 2:Like at times when I'm on stage, I can watch, I know I can almost know how, I know at certain points how quiet the room gonna get just by the, and I used to, like some people run from the quietest. I understand now that the way we're telling stories, I could see people stop. Sometimes I could see the wait staff stop the watch. So I learned to use that. And like the, I didn't know what it was before when I'd just be talking and people would, would they just be walking and there's certain things I'd be doing.
Speaker 2:They stop and I watched the staff, they stop and watch me doing. They listening. They listening. But I learn at what points I, when people are listening and I learn how to get them to listen. It, I don't know if it's just from watching and now just doing it now, but whenever I'm telling a story there, I can see them when they're engaged, they listening.
Speaker 2:And so I, I, I would do jokes and jokes, and then I gotta get your attention back. Something I gotta, because I know people can't do this when you listen and your intentions, like, it's like when people watching TV and they don't hear people around them, they go, And then they caught like when you was a kid, mom. Where you see something run by? Yeah. When you, you not, you not even paying attention to the world around you.
Speaker 2:You so engulfed into the TV. And the same way I watch my kids do that now. And the way I watch a movie and you so engulfed into it. That's kind of what I try to do to stand up. I need you engulfed for at least a moment.
Speaker 2:So I got your attention. So you can't look off. And I just been trying to add more and more of that into my material.
Speaker 1:Question. Is there such thing as black rooms and white rooms? What's the difference? Like some people like black rooms are harder. Some people like white rooms are harder.
Speaker 1:I believe it's the comic. Like some people can't do them. Some people could do both. Like what do you prefer?
Speaker 2:Like, I mean, I intentionally did both starting, so that was cause they, they have different flavors that they enjoy. I mean, that's, that's what it is. I mean, if you're white people like wittiness, they'd be trying to outwit you. And so if you got some wittiness to you, some clever jokes in there, then, oh, you got me there. That.
Speaker 2:Touche. Yeah. Okay. I ain't think you could get over on me like that. And black people want authenticity.
Speaker 2:They want the genuine, the shit that they can relate to. That's pretty much, I try to be authentic and witty. At least the sauce, I think that there is, if you authentic and you witty, can capture both rooms because you go as an authentic person, whether you white, black Mexican, you're gonna be yourself no matter who else around. And then people want a, it's still a show. So I think it was a man, you see how other artists, how they perform like music artists or poets or whatever it means.
Speaker 2:The, the level of, especially if you go to like a spoken word and they do them poems and they pause and they do, they bring it back. You can bring, you can feel the emotion in, in the, in the, in the spoken word in
Speaker 1:the room,
Speaker 2:in the room. So you, you can feel it. So that's kind of the same energy that when I look at doing a show, you gotta have the showmanship with it as well. So, that when people come out, they still know it was a show as opposed to you just telling jokes.
Speaker 1:How do you feel about people stealing jokes?
Speaker 2:Oh man, that shit sucks, man. But it's part of it, man. This is the, You start to learn that some of it's not, and then some of it, you'll tell what is. Because there's, we are in a small world. We just say talking about jokes about on podcasts.
Speaker 2:Eventually somebody gonna say the same joke because you're talking about the same topics, but it's how you say what you're going to say is what makes the difference and what you're talking about. So if we talking about podcasts, gonna be like, yeah, you probably get a thousand comments. Why the mic so close to your mouth? Like Simone, you know, this, that's just the nature of the beast. But if you, what you learn is the comments that do that, you're not gonna get many people that people see, they see what's going on.
Speaker 2:Like you see people that, and you'll start to not, when I see comics instead of, and I've seen quite a bit for me as a comic, I'm like, I don't know if I wanna work with them no more. Cause, but then ultimately. Why wouldn't
Speaker 1:you wanna work with them? Just wanna strip that they take in joke. They might take yours and run with it type shit.
Speaker 2:Well, this is the thing. If you gotta take mine, you gotta take a lot. Cause I do a lot of callbacks. And I mean, if you gonna do that, but it's gonna be hard for you to keep it up. That's going to be a hard thing.
Speaker 2:As fast as you can steal it, I'm putting, I'm writing.
Speaker 1:Have you ever heard somebody use the word?
Speaker 2:Oh man. I've seen people try to do it in front of me. What? And they mess up the joke.
Speaker 1:Do you say anything to them or you just,
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah. I say something to them. I mean, you cannot say nothing to them because the people that I've seen, like, they have just saw me. And then, even with the younger comics and now I look at it differently. It's kinda like you see how people follow Dave Chappelle or Kevin Hart and you see younger comics doing this, it's flattering in a sense from like, oh man, I see that you admire me in that way.
Speaker 2:So they admiring
Speaker 1:you and taking your shit?
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, they like your shit. They like you. They don't just coming from for that. If they taking your shit, they gonna try for more, but they're a fan. How are you gonna let you to try to take my shit?
Speaker 2:You gotta watch me. True. So that's the same thing you got. I see people try to do Kevin Hart all the time. I see people try to do some of the other, whoever their favorite comic is or whatever it's white, black, Mexican, whatever your favorite comic is, they comics mimic that.
Speaker 2:Along the way you start to try to develop your own, your own style. So we all come in and watching somebody, somebody has influenced us to start comedy. So you, you gonna have some of that, because that's what you should think is funny. And then as you go on, you gonna be like, all right, that ain't the style that I do. And then you may have different styles.
Speaker 2:For me, I do, I'll do stories sometimes. Then if I'm hosting, I'm talking shit. I'm talking big shit and I ain't, and I ain't doing it to be malicious or anything, but it's a, it's just a different, different thing.
Speaker 1:Quick question. Say you hosting a show, right. And a comic comes up and use one of your bits and you didn't know, you know what I'm saying? Like you the host and they own the show and they use your shit and they get off. Are you addressing it on the mic?
Speaker 2:Yeah. It depends. I mean, I will, it depends on what I'm doing. I mean, I can tell, if I can tell that they have just stole my shit. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna put, I'm gonna just, I'm gonna just call them out. I don't know if I necessarily do, do them out on the mic just because I mean, I give people the opportunity to, all right, cool. What's going on though? Cause as comics, nobody gives you the rules to this shit.
Speaker 1:There's none.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So nobody tells the rules and I won't necessarily put nobody out. Look, I'm a give you up to it, bro. Let me tell you something. Come holler at me.
Speaker 2:Yo, you got, this is, you know, this ain't your material and people gonna know just because a lot of times people have seen, if it's my material, they done seen it somewhere. Somebody have seen it and I got it on record and I record just about everything. And I'm like, all right, now what's going to happen is you gonna, people gonna see you and they gonna start, you can continue to do it and that, but then you're not gonna get as much work because people know you're joke thief. So what I can tell you is come up with your, you decided to do this because you're funny. You didn't come to do this because you are a tape recorder and you wanna, or, you know, recording advice and you wanna replay what's already out there.
Speaker 2:Come up with your, there's people that like what you gonna do, whatever it is that you you're drawing that you're to come up If somebody out there that's going to
Speaker 1:like what you're going to do. Do you believe that people have to be funny to be comedians or can they learn to be funny?
Speaker 2:Funny is relative. That's the thing. What what's funny to me is different to somebody else. Cause I don't laugh at everybody. So I don't, I don't expect everybody to laugh at me, but eventually I'm trying, I'm shooting shots.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to get you. That mean that's the, that's the game of it. So I think the, the comics that, that are not funny or presumed to be funny right now, they, they haven't identified how to connect to people to understand what they're talking about and so they can visualize it.
Speaker 1:So how would they do that?
Speaker 2:I mean, come from the reps and come from feedback. If you ain't getting it now, if you ain't getting laughter right now and you think it's supposed to be funny, you need to talk that shit through somebody else. Yo, I don't understand why
Speaker 1:it's, I got a joke that took me a year to write.
Speaker 2:Like what, I mean, that's the thing. So if you got a joke that took you a year to write, how did you write your, how did you write your, why did it take you a year to write
Speaker 1:the joke? Well, wrote the joke, took a year for it
Speaker 2:to work. For it to work. Okay. Well, do you think it took a year for it
Speaker 1:to work? Because I had to get it right. I had to break it down, rebuild it, fix it. Keep the same premise in the same punch, but shorten it up, figure it out and how to deliver it inside of the set at the right time.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's the what's a
Speaker 1:And I didn't know how to write a set until you told me. Just let the world know that I appreciate Ray showing me how to write a set.
Speaker 2:Hey man, well look. I don't even know what I mean. Well, thank you. I guess. And you know what?
Speaker 2:I've been meaning to ask you about that dude.
Speaker 1:Where's your reparations for that? Well,
Speaker 2:nah, there's the, you, I don't know, man. It's all relative, man. People gonna figure out. I tell you if you don't think that if it took you a year to figure it out, and that means that you're
Speaker 1:But some people just give up.
Speaker 2:Well, ain't just to give it up.
Speaker 1:I mean like on a joke or like in general, Oh, that shit didn't work. Throw it away. People used to tell people all the time, just throw it away. You don't need to go figure something.
Speaker 2:Shit. Rock that thing. If you don't, ain't gonna never see you throw away. Cause if it was funny then it'll be funny now. You just gotta, you got, you ain't found the other piece to it yet.
Speaker 2:There's jokes that I was doing. I got a lot of jokes and there's those jokes I was doing a long time ago that I just don't use anymore either because now because of some, the time changes and sensitivity. Well, ain't this time to just now it may seem hacky or whatever it may be. And I'm like, I don't wanna do that until I've got a new perspective on it. So I may bring it back later or there's jokes that I've, that I've written a long time.
Speaker 2:I'm like, oh, okay. And I found the piece that'll make it work now. Cause I'm, I'm, I'm, it may be in another joke, but now I'm like, oh, I can connect it to this joke because now it works better for this joke. But I mean, just try shit, you figuring it out as you go. My whole thing is I'm gonna figure it all out.
Speaker 2:That's pretty much it from the figuring out how to, like you figuring out how to put the podcast together and running that. That's how I do the comedy and the business. Figured out how does this go. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you gotta change with society because the things that we talked about when we started might offend the hell out of somebody right now or you just still do it and don't give a damn.
Speaker 2:I mean, it just, I mean, I do what I wanna do. My thing is just the same concept. You're gonna like me because of joke, we ain't on the same, we ain't there either way. And you weren't gonna rock with me no way. So that's, that's, and that's cool.
Speaker 2:I mean, everybody not gonna like me and I'm good with that.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That's just how it works. And so, so the name of the, we about to get out of here. The name of the podcast is called unqualified qualifications. When was there a time in life that you felt qualified, but the rest of the world thought that you was unqualified?
Speaker 2:Doing this. What are you talking about, man? You got, you know how delusional you gotta be to be a comic. Yeah. To believe that you, especially if you, if, if you, especially if you're trying to do, be successful in, and you're trying to provide for a family, you wanna do what you wanna provide for your family, telling jokes.
Speaker 2:When you look at it like that, like that is we selling jokes. We, we, we, we selling people fun and words, words that have joined in enjoyment. So, and you gotta get people to, to, at some point in time to support, because you don't need some support in this. Whether that's if you got kids to help you support your kids, to support you mentally, sometimes financially, sometimes you know, you just need mental stability, people to come say good affirmations to you. So that's pretty much it, man.
Speaker 2:You gotta figure it out. And a lot of doing comedy is like, damn every night. And even if you kill, when you come back, especially when you work in a job, you gotta come back and clock back in.
Speaker 1:After you just rock the club.
Speaker 2:He'll rock the club and you think it's supposed to explode, you And you about to be in here. You finna put these eight hours in and we're going to expect some, some additional stuff at the end of the day. So, and then your kids don't want some or, you go have a bill do late. It's going to be some bullshit and you gotta get up and go back to do this again. And again, until you can get this material right.
Speaker 2:For free or $5 for free for meal,
Speaker 1:a cup of liquor. Nothing. They'll give you liquor.
Speaker 2:And man, some way not everywhere they used to, man. Yeah, that'll be, you get, is this for the commies? What you mean for the commies? That's $5 That's what you call $8 8 dollars now, dollars 9 for beer.
Speaker 1:They should tell you, you can either get cash or you can get a tab at the bar.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man.
Speaker 1:So let everybody know your associates, to get in contact with you, what do, how they follow you, where they gonna see you, what's popping.
Speaker 2:Oh man. Y'all can follow me on comedianraymoney on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, all that good stuff comedianraymoney. And I have my website too, www.comcom.
Speaker 1:Get some merch.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Get some merch. Yeah. Get you, get you, shit depending on what y'all got. Y'all could just call me directly, man.
Speaker 2:I ain't gonna go through all those. Ain't gonna do that. Y'all messing me, man. We ain't gotta go through all that. All the what you need.
Speaker 2:I'm a pull up.
Speaker 1:Alright, everybody. It's been wonderful, man. Have a great day. Thank you for listening to me and Ray Money. Peace.
Speaker 1:Be good, man.