From $36 Outfit to Empire: An Immigrant's Success Blueprint | Michael Blackson DSH #1000

they just looked at me like they said, damn, you black.

I said, of course, we are black.

He said, no, you black as hell.

Yo.

One other kid told me, I look like I have no bright ideas.

He said, the difference between me and midnight is 11.59.

Oh, my God.

He said, when God said, let there be light, I was out of town.

All right, guys, Michael Black's son here today.

What happened to you, man?

Man, you know what, man?

You know, first I'm on a nice, easy table with a bunch of amateurs that had no damn clue what they were doing.

I was doing very well.

I was rich.

Had about 200,000, a little over 200,000.

And he decided to put me on a big table with Adrian Peterson and a bunch of other guys.

And then, and it's just, that's when things went downhill from there, man.

When I got, Adrian Peterson had like half a million.

Maybe more.

Maybe a million dollars.

I'm not sure what the mother.

Whatever he had, a lot more than me.

So he had room to play play around.

He started bullying.

He started bullying, man.

And then I came up there with about 187 to be exact.

Then 187.

Yeah, I had about 187.

And it just, I never had a good hand.

I never had a good hand.

And I tried a couple of times.

One time I folded with a 7-6 and I could have won.

You know, and that's why usually I play almost every hand.

And when I was coming, my good friend, like, Mike, don't play, only play the good hands.

The good hands don't always win.

Facts.

You know, you got to take a risk.

If I would have took a risk, I would have probably been still playing right now.

Yeah, you got to play aggressive sometimes.

I play aggressive with nothing.

And then also, I mean, I went all in with a

Ace and a Queen of Spade at the beginning of the, you know, Adrian Peterson won.

He had a five and two fives came out.

Oh.

Trip fives.

That's nasty.

And I started off with an ace and queen.

You're right, though.

You got to take risks.

That goes for life, too.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You got to take a risk.

You're not where you're at without taking some big risks.

Hell no.

Man, it's all good.

You know, at the end of the day, I had a good time.

I had fun.

I mean, I wore, look at this jacket, man.

Drift out.

I think I ended up like, you know, like 30-something out of 80-something.

I don't know, whatever it was.

You're number one in outfits, though.

I am number one in outfit.

That's all that matters, man.

I'm the best dresser.

Everybody here look, I mean, everybody like the

half homeless.

I mean, I'm not sure where these guys shop, in what hamper they shop at,

but they have no style.

I mean no sense of style they just always a horrible dressing one to always win the money

but you know it's all good I came here

and this this is actually still alive is that real fur this jacket is still alive wow yeah yeah it's cheaper when you buy them alive in my village yeah yeah you got that from a village it's still alive man this jacket will bite the s out of you right here

let's go you gotta walk uh new york fashion week this next year uh yeah i would love to man you know i'm definitely going to try the Milan one in June.

I'm definitely going to Italy and go to Milan Fashion Week.

I'm looking forward to that.

I'm into clothing, man.

You know, when I was a kid,

when I came to America as a teenager, I didn't know how to dress.

Kids clown me every day, man.

You know, I had like

America, you know, very materialistic here.

And, you know, as a kid coming from Africa, we just cared about our outfit being new.

We didn't care whether it was Nike or Didas, Puma.

We just cared it was new when I was a kid.

And you know, I remember my first day of school, my mother bought me some sneakers.

The sneaker was called Inaction, right?

It was like $10.

She bought it like in a grocery store.

It was in Jersey.

It's called Pathmark.

I know you heard of Pathmark.

That's way before your time.

So Pathmark.

Pathmark is a grocery store.

So she bought my sneakers in a grocery store, like right next to chicken.

Like I have chicken-flavored sneakers I had to wear to school.

So, I go to school, but I didn't care because it was brand new.

You know, I go to school, I'm like, oh, I got brand new sneakers, my sneakers in action.

I had like a button-up shirt, cost of like $5.99, some church pants, that was like $9.99.

My whole outfit was about

the same price as the drink I just had, like $36.

Yeah.

But I didn't care.

It was brand new.

My first day of school in America.

I said, okay, I'm about to go to school.

I'm about to sh ⁇ all my haters because I got on brand new clothes.

I get there, the kids are like, what the hell are you wearing?

I said, what you mean?

I say,

they say it's not Nike, it's not Adidas, it's not Puma's.

I said,

it's brand new.

Nobody's ever worn this.

It lit my ass up.

So I said to myself, whenever I'm able to make some money,

I'm going to wear the best clothes I ever.

Let's go.

I want to wear clothes that nobody, I've, nobody in here has better have this on.

If I catch anybody with this jacket on, I'm going to throw this shit away.

Okay.

Damn.

So those were the kids in Philly?

No, that was North Jersey.

Oh, North Jersey.

By the time I got to Philly, I already spent about three years in Jersey.

By the time I got to Philly, I already knew what it took to fit in.

I knew already.

So when I got to Philly, I got a job at Domino Speech.

I was delivering pieces on a bike at like 16 years old, making a little $30 here every day

during the summertime, and then saved up all my money.

September went and shopped.

for some nice decent clothes and then I went to school and it started looking good.

Damn, man.

Humble beginnings, man.

Came a long way, man.

Wow.

I didn't know you grew up in Jersey, though.

Yeah, yeah.

My first three years was in Newark, New Jersey.

Then I moved to Philly.

Philly's where I was raised the rest of the time.

I got to Philly like

15 and a half years old, 16 years old.

And then I pretty much grew up there.

You started running the stand-up.

And then I started doing comedy about

five years later, 21 years old.

I started doing stand-up.

Let's go.

Who were your mentors early on?

Who was my guy, Eddie?

I mean, Eddie Murphy was my, you know, he was one of my favorites when I first started.

You know, I missed, I kind of almost missed the Richard Pryor era when I came to America.

But Eddie was a man.

I mean, I watched like Raw, Delirious.

And then, you know, and it won't fast forward to like 28 years later, I'm doing a movie with this guy.

Wow.

You know what I mean?

Full circle.

Full circle, man.

Amazing.

So, yeah, man.

You ever look back like, damn, like.

Yeah, I look back all the time, man.

Like, I came from...

From what I came from to where I am right now,

it's amazing, man.

Yeah, because you grew up in Ghana, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Well, Liberia.

Liberia is where I Ghana was birthed.

Liberia was where I was raised.

And then I came, spent, actually spent about three years in Nigeria as well as a kid.

You know, pretty much West Africa.

And then I came to the States in my teens.

And then

stand-up was, I guess, that's what, because I was a shy kid.

I was very shy as a kid, man.

I didn't.

Why were you shy?

I don't know.

Because the kid, you know, I was in a very different place.

You know, American kids could be very mean.

Very mean.

Very mean.

You know, a lot of things I didn't know about myself until I got to America, you know.

Like, you know, let's say Africa, for instance, you know, Africa, we have all different complexion of black people.

You have dark or black, you have brown, you have light, you have everything.

In Africa, we never saw colors.

No white people.

Well, I mean, that's white people.

We knew the white people were white.

I mean, but the blacks, we just never saw different.

Colors in the black when I came to America is when I found out that I'm dark skinned

I Had no idea I was dark skinned until I got here That's crazy.

I'm playing with the kids, you know, and American kids in the hood could be real mean.

I'm playing with the kids, and they just look at me and said, Damn, you black.

I said, Of course, we are black.

He said, No, you black as hell.

Yo, I said, What you mean?

One kid told me I looked like I was baptized on a skillet.

Damn.

That's like a frying pan.

Fucking

one other kid told me I look like I have no bright ideas.

He said, The difference between me and midnight is 11:59.

Oh my God.

He said when God said, let there be light, I was out of town.

They told me every time I wear a wife beater, I look like a skunk.

Jeez.

One kid told me Stevie Wonder sees me every day.

That's dark as hell, man.

Stevie Wonder don't see shit.

I'm telling you right now, it's blind.

These kids are ruthless, man.

They're with me, so I took everything them kids said about me and I took it to the stage now.

And I'm rich.

Thank you, motherfucker.

You ever hit them up when you became successful?

They probably are in jail or somewhere smoking.

Who knows where they are?

That's the best way to win, though.

Prove them with success, you know?

Yes, you know what?

I was.

We were Trump, so.

Oh, yeah.

Trump.

I was rooting for the guy.

There's a few reasons why I was rooting for Trump.

I like to see somebody like this.

I mean, that just shows you the American dream.

How you could be.

I mean, most of the politicians are all

came from, like, all were senators and governor and this and that.

Trump was a businessman that had no idea about presidency.

And then he won 2016, became president.

The guy that with no experience.

And the funny thing about Trump is, you know, when he went in office in 2016, he had no idea that he was supposed to like hire like 4,000 people.

He had no clue.

Crazy.

You know what I mean?

That's just crazy.

That's what makes this country so great.

You come from nothing or have no idea on something, and then you could be the whole leader of the free world.

um

of course the economy was bad it's coming's been very bad that's why we needed a change

you know uh

and i mean i it was just great to see

they all living on his past he did this he did grab this he grabbed that was 30 years ago you know now you know the day he went to office i mean day he won what happened stocks went up everything crypto went up everything went up you know i wish i would have put some money on freaking tesla the night before i would have been rich right now.

Oh, you know, but yeah, yeah, yeah.

I like to see the underdogs win, you know.

I'm also very religious, you know, and

we just, I just want America to be normal again.

Yeah, you know, speaking of religion, there's a there's a bet on Polymarket.

What will Trump say during his inauguration speech?

And one of them is God.

Is that what's up?

Is it on a poly?

Polymark, yeah.

So do you think he'll say God during his inauguration speech?

Will he say God?

Yeah,

I think he would.

56% chance.

That he would say God.

That's the betting market right now, yeah.

I mean, I'm sure Make America great against probably 100.

Yeah, McDonald's is on here.

Crypto, Dogecoin, Kamala, Rig,

illegal immigrants, it's at 52%.

Border, five plus times, is at 35%.

We'll see what he says, man.

I'm going to try to make it to the inauguration, man.

It's going to be a a big event yeah yeah yeah i'm gonna try i'm excited i'm just excited about you know sometimes when things are not great you need a change yeah that's with any country that's anywhere you know and he he was an underdog to me meaning like you know he came from where he came from i like to see underdogs come absolutely shout out to trump yeah definitely dude what's next for you and uh where can people keep up with you uh

um what's next uh i currently have a um tv show it's a pilot four episode pilot on bt plus it's called the michael blackson show Um, I'm on tour as well.

I recently went and built a free school in my village.

I went back and gave back.

Nice.

Yes, the school is called Michael Blackson Academy.

So, anybody want to donate a dollar and help you know put a kid in school?

My foundation, michaelblacksonfoundation.org.

You can follow me on Instagram.

My Instagram, my IG, it's at Michael Blackson.

For those who went to a public school, it's M-I-C-H-A-E-L-B-L-A-C-K-S-O-N.

That's my Instagram, Facebook, my Twitter, Christian Mingle, where black people meet, where white people meet, and where you meet.

Just hit meet any one of those.

Let's go.

Boom.

Thanks for coming on, man.

Anytime, man.