Share the Shine with Kenan Thompson

Speaker 1 I remember when I auditioned for the Mighty Ducks, like they asked if I could skate, and I was like, Yeah, I can roller skate.

Speaker 1 Couldn't roller skate at all.

Speaker 1 But it was just one of those, like,

Speaker 1 they say put special, special, special skills at the bottom of the resume to make it look nicer and make it look more interesting. So I'm like, special skills.

Speaker 1 I've been roller skating, so I'll put that down there. I remember, like, I used to fall two feet up with roller skating.
You know what I mean? Like, real bad falls. Epic skating.
Yeah. Super duper.

Speaker 1 You weren't even close to being able to skate. But thank God they taught me.

Speaker 1 This episode is brought to you by Rivian and Cologuard.

Speaker 1 Hey, you.

Speaker 1 Well, Craig Robinson, here you are again. You showed back up.

Speaker 1 I'm going to keep coming if you keep coming. Okay, that's a deal.
It's a deal. We're having a lot of fun.
This is so much fun. Yeah, loving your color selection.
What would you call that?

Speaker 1 I would call this an olive green, yeah, yeah, yeah. Kelly hooked you up again, she did once again.

Speaker 1 Once again, and you've made it here and put those clothes on just like she told you to, all by yourself. So, uh, did I hear a rumor that you have driven your Rivian? Driving my Rivian.

Speaker 1 It was cool. Yeah, yeah.
I got the we're um uh got this amazing forest green Rivian. It is beautiful.
It just sits in the driveway. Beautiful.
I love the look of that car. It's a good looking car.

Speaker 1 It is an elegant car. And it's bigger than you think once you get in.
It was huge, especially after driving a smaller car.

Speaker 1 But it was so smooth.

Speaker 1 And we were on some back roads and some little unpaved things. It didn't, you know, feel bumpy.
It was the, although I was riding with Malia and she had just gotten into town. Okay.

Speaker 1 So I'm like, you know, I'm still new to driving. New to an electric car, right? And new because I don't drive all the time.
Right. That's right.
So this is me and my daughter.

Speaker 1 We're in the car, you know, just the two of us got the radio on and I'm trying to figure out everything. And where do you press this?

Speaker 1 And she's telling me her life because she had just gotten into town. And she's

Speaker 1 ready to talk. She's ready to talk about her.
And she's talking and I'm trying to drive and work the pedal. And she's like, and then, mom, you know what happened?

Speaker 1 And I was like, turn the station down. And she's just going at me.
You know, it's like she's telling me everything. Important news, too.
So I'm trying to drive my Rivian,

Speaker 1 pay attention to the screen, not hit a deer, you know.

Speaker 1 But through it all, it was a really smooth ride. It was.
Folks have heard us talk about the Rivians that we have been gifted by the company to drive. And

Speaker 1 Kelly and I finally got to do a long ride where you have to charge it when you're away. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 And because she was nervous. She was a little nervous about it.

Speaker 1 And I was saying, they do such a good job in their app of showing you not only where the Rivian charging stations are, but where any charging station is.

Speaker 1 So you, you're never really out there on your own. Out there on your own.
And so we, we, we drove, I don't know, 400 something miles away,

Speaker 1 charged it away. at a grocery store

Speaker 1 and it was way to go. So went in, got something to eat.
Yeah. Messed around with the with the dashboard and still finding stuff out.
So it was really good. Yeah.
It was really good.

Speaker 1 So and another friend of mine who has a Rivian says that there's a whole camper unit that you can get with it. You can.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Which I didn't. I know that Rivian, they are really pushing outdoor life.
So the

Speaker 1 hood is not, because there's no engine, you can use it as a cooler. But I didn't realize that you could get other accessories, like a, you know, you could, there's a cooktop and other kinds of things.

Speaker 1 You've never told me about that. But that's because I haven't been camping.
Yeah, but still, those are features that are really pretty interesting for the more outdoorsy people who are Rivian users.

Speaker 1 Yeah. But anyway, so I was thrilled.
It's a beautiful car. And

Speaker 1 when I get back home, I'm going to drive it some more. Yeah.
So

Speaker 1 we have a guests of all guests. Yeah, Yeah, one of my favorite people.

Speaker 1 He doesn't know that. Well, how could he?

Speaker 1 Before today, he had a lot of people. Yeah, I guess we, yeah, we never met him.
But don't you feel like, you know, you should know that.

Speaker 1 And he, it feels like not only should we, we know that we know him, but he, it feels like he should know us. He feels like,

Speaker 1 I was telling you, he feels like somebody who went to Mount Carmel High School walking down the hallway, cracking jokes on dudes and dudes going to the locker room, shaking their head, crying.

Speaker 1 You know, I mean, just he's that for me. Like, if I look at him and he smirks a little, I will start cracking up.
And we're talking about Keenan Thompson, you all know. Yes, indeed.
Yep.

Speaker 1 But before I get too far ahead of myself, let's introduce him so we can get him out here. I will.
Keenan Thompson is an award-winning actor, comedian, producer, and author. All of that? Yep.

Speaker 1 Best known for his work on

Speaker 1 Saturday Night Live or SNL, as people call it.

Speaker 1 Is that what they say? Yeah. And he's recently wrapped his 22nd season.
Dag, he looks like he's 27. I know.
And I was telling Julia, our producer, that

Speaker 1 I've been watching that show since it came on. I'm that old.
And I remember when he came on

Speaker 1 and I was like, man, they hiring these young brothers on the Saturday night. Live, okay, okay.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 he is the show's longest running cast member. So without any further ado, the man who's coming here dressed for the vineyard, Kenan Thompson.
Keenan.

Speaker 1 It's like Cousin Keenan.

Speaker 1 That's right. What's up? Don't smoke your hat.

Speaker 1 Come on.

Speaker 1 You look so fresh.

Speaker 1 I'm getting fresh for y'all. Pleasure, pleasure, pleasure.
You look so fresh and so cute. You know?

Speaker 1 I want to go to the vineyard.

Speaker 1 Okay. All right.
All right.

Speaker 1 Get your ferry ticket. You know,

Speaker 1 they have the little ones with the cars.

Speaker 1 They have the, yeah, they do. Have you ever been to the vineyard? I went for Seth Meyer's wedding.
That was like the one time I went.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's lovely. It's lovely.
I was, I rented this like yellow, I think, Camaro. So I was just like, so you were

Speaker 1 yellow, you know, kind of oblivious to the fact that people will notice me.

Speaker 1 But yeah, I was sticking out a little bit on that one. It was fun, though.
It's like, is that KNAN in that yellow car? I mean, I want to live life, you know? Yeah, you have to.

Speaker 1 yeah, yeah, but that means you have to like find some time to have a vacation. Yeah, it doesn't happen often, yeah, but you know, that was a good one, yeah, yeah.
Well, welcome, thank you very much.

Speaker 1 It's so nice to see the two of you in person, and it's good to see you in person to meet you. I really do feel like I know you.
I mean, yes, I'm sure you get that a lot.

Speaker 1 Where people are like, man, I feel like we know each other, but I've been in y'all's face for a long time. You have, you have, at all different levels too, you know, because you got the kid audience

Speaker 1 that grew up with you. Cause our kids, Malia and Sasha, by the time they were watching you, I wasn't watching TV with them.
Right. Right.

Speaker 1 You know, you get to that age where it's like, okay, you're on your own. Yeah.
Right. That's what you do.
And, um, but yeah, enough of that Mickey Mouse in the background. Exactly.

Speaker 1 But my older kids grew up with you.

Speaker 1 They're just a little bit younger than you are. But my younger kids only know you from Saturday Night Live.
They're 15 and 13. Interesting.
Yeah, and

Speaker 1 we let them watch a little Saturday Night Live before.

Speaker 1 And what do they think? Yes, that's a good idea.

Speaker 1 What do they think about the show or about you? Both. Yeah, do you?

Speaker 1 I would love to hear both. Saturday Night Live? Well,

Speaker 1 thanks to Malia.

Speaker 1 I started letting them watch R-rated stuff. So Malia,

Speaker 1 they were very strict parental parents in terms of viewing. No PG-13.
And their older cousin thought that that was ridiculous and told them that they needed to be doing more sneaking by now.

Speaker 1 They always them cousins, she wasn't sneaking.

Speaker 1 Kids influence each other the most. Oh, goodness.
Cousins. But that's what cousins are for.
That's what that's what she felt.

Speaker 1 She felt like she needed to inform them that they shouldn't always be listening to their parents. Thank God it was family as opposed to like some folk down the street.
You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 Malia. Yeah, but you know, know i could see if it's sasha but malia

Speaker 1 but they're 15 and that's

Speaker 1 15 and 13 malia's point was it's it's about that time you know you want them to be street smart yeah you really do because they did you know they've grown up a little differently than we are exactly and we did you know you you want to give them that as well kind of thing because you want to spoil them you know because you work hard and it's like i'm working hard to give these things to you but then you see that they might not be appreciating it as much so you got to pull back some exactly but you know it's all leading up to those rivian times you know and like you get back to a reunited person and y'all have a conversation and it's like look at this yeah fully formed totally separate you know adult human being kind of thing yeah approaching adulthood kind of thing how old are your daughters now they are the little one is turning seven in a couple days and the big one's 11.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they're getting big on me. I don't have babies anymore.
I know. But see, that's why you're in that deep parenting mode.
You know, I mean, you see how duper

Speaker 1 off his tongue about

Speaker 1 accountability,

Speaker 1 right? I mean, 24/7 for the way I'm going to be able to do it. Forget Keenan Thompson Saturday Night Live.
You're just like, who look at these two people growing up in front of my face? Absolutely.

Speaker 1 It's the greatest thing in the world. You know, literally witnessing miracles.
You know, so it's been the best thing I've ever done, in my opinion.

Speaker 1 You know, other people look at my work on television, but for me, looking outwards, always like they're the greatest, you know. Yeah, sweethearts.

Speaker 1 Um, what's been the hardest part of being a because you have two girls? Yeah,

Speaker 1 I think waiting on the turn, and you know, like right now, they're like very sweet and they're nice to their mom. You've heard most of the time.

Speaker 1 And I've heard about that, that turn that could have, sometimes it doesn't happen, sometimes it doesn't, you know, or sometimes it's quick and they come back around, you know, pretty quickly, you know, kind of hoping for that.

Speaker 1 Here's the thing: like, you know, I always say to the minute they show up,

Speaker 1 you're preparing them for the turn. Right.

Speaker 1 And all the other stuff. Like, sometimes people as parents, they're like, well, I'll wait until you're 20.
Right.

Speaker 1 And I'll start talking to you about the things I'm worried about or I'll start worrying about your attitude.

Speaker 1 But at all,

Speaker 1 it's every day. Yeah.

Speaker 1 What kinds of things? are you working on as a father today that's going to think prepare them?

Speaker 1 I mean, just

Speaker 1 telling them and reminding them that they're a family. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 They're so competitive with each other, you know, and that's fine to be and have a competitive nature and this, that, the other. But I want to remind them that this is what you have.

Speaker 1 This sibling bond that you have is very strong. It's probably the strongest on the planet, you know.

Speaker 1 But if you don't use it the correct way or if you waste it or if you just, you know, waste the young years and, you know, you don't get to know each other until later.

Speaker 1 You know, I just just don't want them wasting time arguing over who gets to sit where in the car or who gets to press what elevator, but you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 I always want to remind them that y'all should love each other. You know, family is a beautiful thing.
It's a beautiful thing to stay connected like that. Cause me and my siblings are close.

Speaker 1 You know, and it's, I'm a witness to what it's like to be able to live long life with your siblings and have people that support you, you know, no matter what kind of thing.

Speaker 1 You know, I'm witnessing you too. Like, that's, it's a beautiful thing.

Speaker 1 How many brothers and sisters do you have? I have one of each. Uh-huh.
Yeah. What was growing up? Like, where

Speaker 1 I'm from Atlanta. Yeah.
Yeah. Southern Baltimore.
Southside, yes, indeed. Right by the airport.

Speaker 1 Grew up with my manners, you know, large, extended family.

Speaker 1 You grew up with your manners. I grew up with my manners.

Speaker 1 Well, you look like you. I didn't know what to call you.
I was going to miss you. Call me Michelle.

Speaker 1 Wait, wait. Let's see.
Call her Michelle.

Speaker 1 Michelle.

Speaker 1 It's tough. It's hard.
It's tough. You should.
If you like,

Speaker 1 I don't know if you can. We want to call you Madame Obama.
We want to call you Emma.

Speaker 1 We want to call you all kinds of things. You can call me Madame.
Michelle, thank you for the grace.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 Did I miss the knee? I didn't do the nil.

Speaker 1 But yeah, no.

Speaker 1 It's a beautiful thing. My parents are from small town, Virginia, Lynchburg, if you ever heard of it.

Speaker 1 And yeah, all my cousins, extended family from around that area and spent a lot of summers growing up there.

Speaker 1 So I have a perspective of, you know, what it's like to maybe not have grown up with a lot of opportunity kind of thing. And at what age? I mean, you guys started so young.

Speaker 1 When did you feel like, oh, I think I want to do this?

Speaker 1 Pretty early.

Speaker 1 Probably my first paycheck, like, I started acting when I was five doing theater and stuff like that. And you knew you wanted to do that.
I enjoyed it, but when I was like 11, I did a commercial.

Speaker 1 That was like a real job. And then they paid me like $800.

Speaker 1 And I was like, at 11 years old, that might as well have been a million. Really? So I was like, yeah, I like this.

Speaker 1 You know, I had cut grass and stuff before, and it's 20 bucks a yard, you know, and that's a lot of work for $20.

Speaker 1 If you can actually sign that house up, you know, you got to walk the neighborhood with your mom. It's hot in Atlanta.
So like I knew work. Yeah.
And I didn't

Speaker 1 like it.

Speaker 1 Yeah. and treats and snacks and treats.

Speaker 1 What was the commercial? The first it was uh for this fried chicken restaurant called uh Lee's Famous Country Recipe Chicken. Oh,

Speaker 1 really?

Speaker 1 Were you an outlier? I mean, were the kids in your group all uh, you know, rehearsing and plays,

Speaker 1 you know, or were you one of one in your?

Speaker 1 I mean, my brother and I kind of started together. You know, we both went to like Sears to get our headshots.
Don't remember that. It was Sears.
The headshots.

Speaker 1 Folks don't know about Sears. Sears Robo.
Man, you get your tires shit. I think this was

Speaker 1 the outlet, which is even further.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 That's right. That's right.
But you remember the Sears catalog? Christmas catalog. Oh, man.

Speaker 1 Yes. Yes.
Yeah, it went from this to this.

Speaker 1 That was the bathroom. Pages and pages.
Bathroom. Bathroom.
Coupons-ish. Coupons-ish.
They're kind of just showing you what they got.

Speaker 1 So headshots. Just before the internet.
Headshots at Sears. And I think borrowed sweaters.
I think we put the sweaters back after the photo shoot. From the rack.
Uh-huh. I feel like it's like a shot.

Speaker 1 But it's like, we're just trying these on. Baby Sex Cheese.
No haircuts. That's gangsta.
So the first headshots was very spiky little afros. Yeah.
Adorable, though.

Speaker 1 You know, I thought we were, we were two cute little kids.

Speaker 1 And then my brother grew up and went to like college and became cool, you know. and then i stayed kind of in it and yeah that's how that's how it kind of started but were you able to start

Speaker 1 were you able to have like with a normal childhood were you still playing outside or did when did it get when did it change

Speaker 1 i was i think kind of a great version of a child actor story because i didn't really start working work until i was like 15 you know so i was kind of already up there as far as knowing who I am as a person.

Speaker 1 And at 15, you know,

Speaker 1 ish, you know,

Speaker 1 like I know my values, my manners, this, that, and the other, and I'm ready to like go out in the world and like figure out if I can start, you know, working or start towards a career, whatever that might mean.

Speaker 1 So.

Speaker 1 This segment is presented by Progressive Insurance because true progress starts when people are empowered with the knowledge and support to take bold steps forward.

Speaker 1 And, you know, being prepared always made me feel really good. And I think back to the times when I was coaching,

Speaker 1 whether it was as an assistant coach at Northwestern or a head coach at Brown or Oregon State, whenever my teams were prepared,

Speaker 1 I always went into the game feeling like we had a more than 80% chance to win the game. And it is amazing how

Speaker 1 when you hit all the notes in practice, the games are easy. Yeah, that makes it fun.
I mean,

Speaker 1 when I realized the importance of preparation in making something hard, fun was actually in law school when I had my first moot court competition.

Speaker 1 And yeah, it was daunting, but I didn't really know what it was. It was for sure everybody had to compete in moot court.

Speaker 1 And I was, I, I, for the practice, because you've got an opportunity to practice.

Speaker 1 And you were actually making a case a closing argument it was a criminal case and i think i was representing the defense my partner uh was representing the prosecution if i have it right and we had to present our closing arguments to the jury so instead of preparing i didn't have time so i thought well i'll go in and i'll wing it right

Speaker 1 and you were taped and i got to watch how bad i was taped when i wasn't prepared and it was probably the most painful experience for me to watch myself on tape not be prepared.

Speaker 1 And I think that was probably the first and last time that I decided to wing it.

Speaker 1 And I understood that, you know, and I also found out that when I did prepare for the actual moot court trial,

Speaker 1 it was more fun, just like you said, because then you can flow. Same thing with the big speech.

Speaker 1 You know, if when I'm prepared for a big speech, if I know what I'm saying, if I've gone over the process, if i know what it feels like to stand in front from front of the podium to get a feel for how the mic sounds to get used to the lights and the sounds then the speech can just flow so preparation for me has always been a part of not just showing up right but enjoying the process along the way until your brother walks up next to you and says the left prompter is out well yeah that was our famous story in the first big speech i national speech i had at the first democratic national convention where you introduced me and we had teleprompters and we had practiced we had practiced um it was great but one of the prompters went out in the middle of your introduction so when it was time for me to come on stage that the crowds are going wild i come up to give you a hug and i think you're going to whisper something inspirational in my ear like i love you i'm so proud of you instead you said left prompter out and then you were gone and i was like oh what that was strange but i couldn't react because i was on national TV until I got to the podium and realized, oh my God, the prompter to the left was out.

Speaker 1 But because I was prepared. You were prepared.
You were prepared. It didn't mean anything.
It didn't matter at all. It didn't matter.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And even though it doesn't look like it when we're doing this podcast, because we're just flowing back and forth, it takes a lot of preparation. It takes a little work to show up on camera.

Speaker 1 It takes a lot of work. But I tell you, there's no blueprint for becoming a homeowner.
But the truth is, preparation is just part of the path to ownership.

Speaker 1 Thankfully, Progressive is helping people own that process through helpful resources and educational tools that make sense of the journey.

Speaker 1 And thanks to a $7 million commitment to housing initiatives in 2024, along with this year's new down payment assistance program called the Up Payment, Progressive is helping more people prepare, purchase, and build a foundation for the future.

Speaker 1 Whether you're just starting to dream about about home ownership or already deep in the planning process, Progressive is here to guide you from the first question to the front door.

Speaker 1 Visit progressive.com/slash open the house to explore tools, guidance, and support that can help turn your dream into a reality.

Speaker 1 When you first were famous, was that the, you know, the Nickelodeon Nickelodeon years or yeah, I think Good Burger kicked it in the high year.

Speaker 1 I mean Mighty Ducks was cool, but that was more so about like the mighty ducks and then like heavyweights was you know kind of a like a cultural kind of thing like you know a little cult following kind of kind of movie.

Speaker 1 Yeah. But Good Burger was ours.
You know, it started on our show, you know, and it it was the first movie that came from our show, you know, and we were both in it, me and Kel.

Speaker 1 And like, that was my brother and is my brother. Yeah.
And, you know, we just had such a good time. We were 18 at that time.
So we were like, like, yes, bring this all on now, please.

Speaker 1 Now, where were your parents on all of this? How did they feel? Did you feel like they were watching? Were they engaged as you were going through this process? Very supportive. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 My mom was my main like pusher, my main like, you know, foundational, because she was the type of person that got a job at my theater school so I could take classes there. You know, so like

Speaker 1 she's, she's that person. And

Speaker 1 I remember we drove to Charlotte for an audition that I didn't get. You know, we came back the same day and she was like, don't worry about it.
You know, it'll be on the next one.

Speaker 1 So shout out to all the parents that are like, you know, really supporting their kids' dreams and endeavors, even if you don't know where it's headed because.

Speaker 1 We didn't know where it was headed. You know, it was just something that I wanted to do on top of everything else.

Speaker 1 Like I was still playing sports and like playing music and all kinds of stuff, but I didn't have rock star dreams necessarily.

Speaker 1 You know, I maybe had maybe football dreams, but I was little, you know, still. And everybody else was turning into monsters by like ninth, tenth grade.
Like, it was starting to get real. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You know, especially in the good old Federal South. It's like, I'm not going in there with them.

Speaker 1 Yeah, these are the real

Speaker 1 dudes. Yeah, man.
Just kid, kid beasts.

Speaker 1 But I always enjoyed performing and I just, I couldn't stop it. Did you ever have a point in time before, you know, when you were young in your career where you did get a little bit of a big head?

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 what was that like?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I was very kind of naively cocky, you know, going into like certain auditions.

Speaker 1 Like I remember when I auditioned for the Mighty Ducks, like they asked if I could skate and I was like, yeah, I can roller skate.

Speaker 1 Couldn't roller skate at all.

Speaker 1 But it was just one of those like,

Speaker 1 they say put special, special, special skills at the bottom of the resume to make it look nicer and make it look more interesting. So I'm like, special.

Speaker 1 I've been roller skating, so I'll put that down there. I remember like, I used to fall two feet up with roller skating.
You know what I mean? Like real bad fall. Epic.
Yeah. Super duper.

Speaker 1 You weren't even close to being able to skate. But thank God they taught me how to play.
And I can, you know, skate to this day.

Speaker 1 But just one of those things that you just got to, you know, kind of try to make yourself a little more appealing, you know, if that's not necessarily the case, kind of thing, you know.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but that's not a bad story.

Speaker 1 Stretches

Speaker 1 stretching the chicken, stretching, but that's not, I mean, that's just that's a tactic, but that's easily figured out, though.

Speaker 1 Yeah, no, no, I know, but that does to me, that doesn't qualify as you, but I'm willing to take that risk.

Speaker 1 But if you having a big head, you know, or going, I mean, you're, that means you were hustling. Sorry, back to this, to that part, yes.

Speaker 1 When after Mighty Ducks, I thought I was a movie star, you know? So I was like, after one kid movie where I like my character kind of helped save the day, not necessarily the only, but

Speaker 1 I'm the hero, you know, I'm the hero of the sequel of the Mighty Ducks. So that means I'm in the game.

Speaker 1 You know? So when I auditioned for all that,

Speaker 1 it was a different. approach to it because I was introduced to the producers as opposed to like being herded in.
So it was like a meeting. You know what I mean? I'm like, it's over with.

Speaker 1 You you know what I'm saying? Like, they made me with me, bro. Like, what are we talking about? We might as well just go and grab lunch or something.
Like, it's over. I got this.

Speaker 1 And I just was like, what y'all need? Y'all need a Jamaican? Y'all need an old man? I got it. I just threw him out there like it was nothing.

Speaker 1 But I think that confidence was like, you know, something that was appealing to them. You know, it's like, oh, he's kind of ready to perform.

Speaker 1 We don't have to worry about stage fright, I guess, or something like that. So, yeah, I was a little naive on that one, but it helped because I do get very nervous.

Speaker 1 i still get nervous for every show really yeah yeah oh man and i was like

Speaker 1 trying to talk to different people about it especially for stand-up that's why i don't do stand-up because it stresses me out like if i have a gig

Speaker 1 that's all i'm thinking of the whole day

Speaker 1 days out you know like i'm just i can't not focus on that and then like if i travel to a town I ain't going out in the town.

Speaker 1 You know, I'm just in the hotel passing around, watching TV, writing things, just waiting, taking the time away. And it just feels so wasteful.
So that's not my, that's obviously not my thing.

Speaker 1 You know what I'm saying? Yeah, but you have been the longest running cast member of SNL. That's the most terrifying thing.
People have asked me to do a lot of things.

Speaker 1 You see, I've been on talk shows. I've done skits with people.
I've done, but SNL,

Speaker 1 I would never do that. That's wild.
Because to me, it would be

Speaker 1 terrifying.

Speaker 1 Just what you described to me.

Speaker 1 I wouldn't sleep that week. I'd be worrying.
I'd I'd be worrying about looking at the camera. I don't know how you all do that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, my heart goes out to that because I know that feeling, you know, but I just don't have it there for the people that I'm very comfortable there.

Speaker 1 I mean, we did a lot of sketches growing up, and then the live factor doesn't bother me much because it's a large group of people doing it together. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 And there's a lot of people like getting you to where you need to be. And like, all I got to do is read the words.

Speaker 1 I can do that. You know, like, I can like stay focused enough and like deliver my part of it.
And then there's so many people helping you get to that point.

Speaker 1 And you have to write yourself to that point. Yes.
That's another tough part of it. But like the actual show, once it's at that point, it doesn't stress me like

Speaker 1 going to yuck yucks and having to do 17 minutes

Speaker 1 on you. I hate waiting in lines or, you know, what is with these air, the TSA.
I, you know, I just don't like make fun of stuff.

Speaker 1 Go back to you have to write yourself. What does that mean? We write our own SNL.

Speaker 1 So like the best way to like make yourself known there is to write for yourself in the beginning, you know, so you have to like write your own stance, write your own words or worse, like put yourself out there so people can kind of see what your sense of humor is or what you'd like to focus on.

Speaker 1 I was lucky that I was able to balance it more with performance than writing. And I would collab, write with a lot of people.

Speaker 1 Anytime I wrote on my own, it went all over the place.

Speaker 1 And I have a hard time like staying linear or whatever okay i'll just be writing based on like what's on my mind at the time and then when i look back at it i'm like come on that's insane

Speaker 1 it makes no sense martin luther king talking to jay-z that doesn't happen when does that happen it'll never happen and where is it going you know

Speaker 1 where's it gonna end yeah no so when you first got on saturday night live do you have to go on as a writer or how did the words out

Speaker 1 there's some people that get hired as either a writer or a cast member okay and when you get hired in the beginning, you are a repertory player, I think. So that's a two-year kind of staging process.

Speaker 1 And then you become a full player.

Speaker 1 If I'm

Speaker 1 not have your face on the opening credits and come popping out of New York

Speaker 1 smoking a cigarette.

Speaker 1 Hey, you're in New York.

Speaker 1 When do you get to be what is it? As soon as you get hired as a cast member. Yeah.
So if you get in the cast, you get a title in the beginning and you get to do your.

Speaker 1 Was that a big deal?

Speaker 1 Was that like for you when you were?

Speaker 1 Huge deal. And like it was, it was hard to comprehend it still being the same show that I grew up watching because now I'm on it.
And I'm like,

Speaker 1 I thought this was serious comedy. So they hired me.

Speaker 1 And I was 25. So I was young.
And like I was, I was ready to do kind of whatever, but it was just. Very surreal.
You know, it was hard to see it as the same kind of place. And then I was like worried.

Speaker 1 I'm like,

Speaker 1 have I changed it forever? Like, am I really worthy of this? You know what I mean? Because I don't write. You know what I mean? And I don't know what my sense of humor is.

Speaker 1 Like, I don't know what my point of view is as opposed to, you know, when you approach comedy or whatever. Like, what am I trying to say with my jokes?

Speaker 1 I don't know. Like, I'm used to like playing around in chocolate.
You know what I'm saying? Like, just doing whatever. And like,

Speaker 1 now I have to be serious and like, you know, do college kind of educated material. And I didn't finish college, but you know, you were busy, whatever.
I was a little bit busy.

Speaker 1 You were working already. Yeah.
You got a job. Yeah, that's why people go to college.
Yeah, exactly. To try to figure it out.
But yeah, I had it figured out and it was in my way.

Speaker 1 Yep. Yeah.
Yeah. But yeah, I was, it took me a while to figure out how to write sketches.

Speaker 1 Did you have a mentor on the show that's sort of like, Kate, Keenan, this is how you go about getting to the next level. Is that, is that you? Yeah.
I mean, because I hear you do that for people.

Speaker 1 If they ask, I try to be there for people because I remember being very lost in the beginning. Yes.

Speaker 1 Because, you know, a lot of people, you know, come from improv houses or they come from stand-up, you know, two big communal worlds, basically, where they're not by themselves.

Speaker 1 Not a lot of people come from already being an actor or already being a kids performer or anything and just, you know, just being an actor.

Speaker 1 You know, the most people are like real comics that like wind up getting hired there and like are always like hyper focused on it. So they know it very well.

Speaker 1 They've They've shared stories or they read the books, you know, like I went into it just blind, you know, based on what I had been watching on TV or whatever, not knowing how small the studio was, not knowing much about Manhattan, you know, and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 And it was just like a tornado of learning everything on the fly. And it's like college, not everybody's just going to pull you aside and teach you how to do it.

Speaker 1 But Tracy Morgan was a real one from day one. I love him.
It's my brother. Yeah.
He was just like in his own kind of way way telling us little tidbits like, don't peek at dress.

Speaker 1 What? Oh, don't peek at dress. Oh, okay.
That is a golden nugget. Yeah.
Because,

Speaker 1 yeah, the live show is what matters. You know what I'm saying? So if you peek at dress, it's like, yeah, you kind of just wasted it a little bit.

Speaker 1 You know, and like, you don't really have that luxury to do that. in your first few years, you know, because everybody is trying to do their very best.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 You know, because this is the life-changing job. you know what I'm saying? Like, if you do it well, it can change your life.
If you do it bad, it can change your life. Yeah, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 it's a lot of stress. And I see the stress on newcomers, you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 So I always try to be like a friendly ear, or if I see things, you know, when we're rehearsing stuff, I try to suggest, you know, maybe like this shot should be this, or maybe like, what about this idea?

Speaker 1 Like, I'm always trying to like participate in, you know, helping others sketches, you know, get as good as they can be, you know, just try to be helpful, basically. Cause

Speaker 1 when you're stressing like that, you're just, you're not thinking clearly. You know,

Speaker 1 I'm not relaxed enough to be funny all the time. Exactly.
You know, so how do you, how do you relax to be funny? You know, what's, what's your, what's your tip? I will never do SNL. I would.

Speaker 1 Like if I were going to do SNL. I think you could do it because I think you would recognize the

Speaker 1 communal push uphill, which is the show. We're all trying to push the show to the top of the hill every single week.

Speaker 1 And everybody is hyper-focused and committed to the same goal.

Speaker 1 No matter what their politics might be or whatever, everybody is respectful of the place. It's almost like a temple.
You know what I mean? And like, there's nobody trying to make it go left at all.

Speaker 1 Nobody wants anyone to fail. At all.

Speaker 1 And I think once you settle into that warmth,

Speaker 1 I think you start to embrace the only thing that matters is kind of what makes you laugh. You know what I mean? And it's not really about anything else because it's your night.

Speaker 1 And it's up to us to make your night as special as possible, which is like, I love that. I grew up very ensemble-minded.

Speaker 1 So, like, I'm all about let somebody else have the shine and I will help that shine be as bright as possible. Like, I love that.
You, you, like, just sitting here for the listeners, the watchers,

Speaker 1 you're just such a regular dude. Yes.
You know. Um, Taurus in the house, yeah, Taurus, shout out, shout out to the main Taurus, and all the real ones, okay, enough.
The real ones, enough, whatever.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 you're welcome,

Speaker 1 you're welcome. Watch yourself over there, Capricorn.
It's okay, it's okay. You know, I'm gonna take back my compliments.

Speaker 1 This is what I have to do

Speaker 1 since she was four. Remember that y'all love each other, and y'all remember y'all's siblings taking back her compliments.

Speaker 1 Hey, everybody. Craig Robinson here.
And you guys have heard me talk a lot about how much I love staying in Airbnbs. Well, our family is planning a trip out to the West Coast to visit our daughter.

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Speaker 1 This episode of IMO is brought to you by Progressive Insurance, who help people move forward and live fully. Owning a home can be one of the most powerful ways to build financial security.

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Speaker 1 Any memorable favorite

Speaker 1 sketches that, like when people ask you,

Speaker 1 what are some of your favorite sketches?

Speaker 1 Mine? Yes. Absolutely.

Speaker 1 I mean, Scared Straight was my first love because it was the first idea that I had personally that made it on the show.

Speaker 1 And it just still goes. I can't believe they picked it for the 50th.
It was just a special

Speaker 1 thing. Eddie and Will felt like

Speaker 1 crazy. So that was a very, very special moment because that was like

Speaker 1 the first

Speaker 1 thing that i loved and i had an idea about that actually was transferable to the show kind of thing i had a lot of things before that that just made no sense or they were just a little too obvious or been done before you know you know there's a lot of like lineage there especially as far as like black culture is concerned like how many times can you do a person in an afro how many times can you do this um so figuring it out was you know it took me five years like scare straight didn't come until my fifth season wow it took me a while and then what's up with with that of course like what's up with that family fuse black jeopardy you know all the good black stuff you know yeah but what's it like having your face in the world i mean how do you get about how do you how has it um

Speaker 1 look i i live in a we live in a bubble um

Speaker 1 we were raised just like you me more so i'm in a bubble me my husband um that's not how we were raised we believe in the same thing that you know it's a lot Every time we moved up somewhere, we brought our community with us.

Speaker 1 Right. A lot of it's selfishly because it's no fun being in the White House with no friends or to be there with people you didn't really know.
They didn't come there with you.

Speaker 1 They didn't help you get there.

Speaker 1 You ever think about changing the name?

Speaker 1 Obama. What would you pick, Keenan?

Speaker 1 What do you think? Part of the Black House, man.

Speaker 1 Just for a little while.

Speaker 1 Just for a little while. Just for a little while.

Speaker 1 It hadn't. It hadn't.

Speaker 1 That's because y'all bad. You were good.
You got nice people.

Speaker 1 I hadn't thought about it.

Speaker 1 But it's, you know,

Speaker 1 it changes the way you have to live. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Whether you like it or not. And I'm just wondering what have those changes, what have been the hardest changes for you, especially given.
I mean, it's invasive.

Speaker 1 It's invasive. And it's.

Speaker 1 tougher for me when it's tough on other people that are around me that get affected kind of thing. You know, like, I can, I'm, you know, I'm a man out here.

Speaker 1 I can handle, you know, whatever is coming my way because I feel like I'm putting myself in those positions.

Speaker 1 But when people get it by default, necessarily, just for, you know, being associated, you know, it's, you know, that's when it starts to bother me more so than anything because like I don't want to impede on other people.

Speaker 1 You know, I don't want to be a burden or, you know, cause strife where strife wasn't necessarily there at first kind of thing.

Speaker 1 And it's terrible to be the cause of stress, you know, so that bothers me, especially like

Speaker 1 in public when when people come up, you know, and like they want to take pictures and blah, blah, blah. Like I'm usually cordial

Speaker 1 unless I'm with my little ones and then I feel like that's their time. And that's the only time where I'm a little standoffish or whatever.

Speaker 1 But even when I see like it's, you know, bothering the intent of the day, like we're trying to go to a museum or whatever, then I'll just like ask for people not to do that because it's bothering someone else kind of thing.

Speaker 1 But for me. New York is good for that.
You know, I can put my hat on and I can just walk and be amongst the millions. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Some people recognize and they say what's up, you know, the real ones. Shout out to all the FedEx delivery dudes.

Speaker 1 You know, but you know, people like that that are, you know, just feet on the ground, they'll see you and they'll say, what's up? But

Speaker 1 I've never been one of those people that people need to flock towards and start like pulling at necessarily. Like a lot of people just say, hey, and keep it moving.
Or they'll say, thank you.

Speaker 1 Or like, we love you. My family loves you.
You know, and they'll keep it moving. But there are other places where, you know, it gets excessive, like,

Speaker 1 you know, certain settings. Like Disney World World is a setting where families are in the mode to like do for their children.
So they want to get pictured.

Speaker 1 They want to do, you know, they want to introduce, you know, they, they're just, they don't care about boundaries of that. When you're like, you have to be here.
Hey, we meet Mickey Mouse.

Speaker 1 We here, you know, right. And my baby's getting a picture with Mickey Mouse.
It's just better to just embrace it in those moments, you know, as opposed to trying to be like, let us have our space.

Speaker 1 Cause then I start. Feeling bad.
Like I usually walk away from awkward encounters. And I think I live with it more than they do almost, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Because I think people just, you know, go about their daily lives. I'm always just like, man, are they going to hate me for

Speaker 1 wanting somebody's vacation? And some days you're just not in the mood. You're just not in the mood to be famous kind of thing.
I just have too much going on to

Speaker 1 smile through it kind of stuff. And I just need to process sometimes.
And if you run into me on those days, I'm sorry. You know what I'm saying? But it happens.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And if you allow yourself those days, it's not that hard to like

Speaker 1 pull the rubber band back the other direction and just like take a deep breath.

Speaker 1 You can do this. You know what I mean? And just let's attack the day.
And then, you know, when you are ready and people don't notice, that's when it's like, oh, see, you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 Like when you like, you want somebody to say like nice outfit, ain't nobody paying attention to you.

Speaker 1 You know, so be grateful.

Speaker 1 We, we were talking about, and with some of the crew, we were talking about how this business just chews up and spits out people in general, but particularly young people who start young.

Speaker 1 And you've been able to sort of dodge those minefields. But now we're sitting here talking to you, it makes perfect sense.
Like you have a way about you that

Speaker 1 you were raised right and continue to live right. So you just stay out of trouble.
Yeah. I mean, you know, trouble gonna find you.

Speaker 1 If you stay out, if you stay looking for it, trouble gonna come your way. Yeah.
No, I mean, I just, I'm relaxed. You know, I'm 47 at this point.

Speaker 1 So I ain't really like out there just running around wild looking for chaos like I was when I was in my proving years of being 19 and 20 and feeling invincible kind of thing.

Speaker 1 I would much rather Netflix and chill than, you know, turn all the way up. But turning up is fun as well, you know, but I have a good balance now.
You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 Like I understand, you know.

Speaker 1 What I got to do the next day. You know, I got to check my calendars before I go out now.

Speaker 1 You know, I used to just go running out the door whenever it was time kind of thing but now it's like oh man that's i got that zoom

Speaker 1 what was what was 10 30 is going to be yeah but it's always a zoom yeah because like you better have some sleep some water hydrate at least i can just be in my shirt for the zoom but i gotta be in my shirt i gotta actually show up what is turn up keenan like

Speaker 1 Like anybody that grew up in Atlanta, I don't know.

Speaker 1 Yeah, y'all from Chicago. You know,

Speaker 1 just trying to figure it out.

Speaker 1 You know, there's sparkles everywhere.

Speaker 1 We're popping bottles.

Speaker 1 You know, we're standing on top of

Speaker 1 thousands of us. You know what I mean? Like, that's just how it is.
Like, I grew up in the hip-hop. So it's hip-hop culture, basically.

Speaker 1 And just in Atlanta, there was a whole lot of standing around, I guess, because it was probably dangerous to just be one of those people that gets like noticed necessarily.

Speaker 1 You become a target or whatever.

Speaker 1 Mostly holding the wall, which means just standing on the wall and kind of like, you know, people watching, basically kind of stuff. I'm not a big dancer necessarily.
You're not. I dance in place.

Speaker 1 got you got like one move i got a few okay but it's in place it's not like i need to clear the dance on shoulder

Speaker 1 it's just you know got more than the shoulders and like there's one one hip dip okay there's a hip

Speaker 1 hip dip in there

Speaker 1 there's a hip dip in there well when you come to the venue we're gonna have to see your hip dip yeah i mean i'll show it like this there's special occasions but like in the in the club you know bring it out yeah yeah usually it's not enough space to even like do all of that

Speaker 1 everybody's like what are you doing have you gotten to the point where you're like, I don't want to stand? Like, I can't.

Speaker 1 You don't stand no more? You don't stand down. You don't sit down at the club.
You sit down at the club.

Speaker 1 I don't go to the club. If I have to stand, and the notion of watching a concert standing up.
Oh, you sit down at the concert? I have to. I'm 61.
I need a sit.

Speaker 1 Let her sit down. She's like, what I feel like get up.

Speaker 1 I still, I have less enjoyment. Here's an IMO.
Less enjoyment.

Speaker 1 Here's an IMO.

Speaker 1 No one should stand up through an entire concert. In my opinion, everyone should

Speaker 1 sit down.

Speaker 1 Sit back and then sit down.

Speaker 1 But then people don't get up for the moment. And now it's like, oh, no, no, I got to stand up too.
And I was about to say, what do you do when people stand up in front of you?

Speaker 1 Do you just continue to sit? Or do you ask them to stand up? You have to stand up. You have to stand up.

Speaker 1 You can't ask them. You can't

Speaker 1 sit down. You have to stand up.
And then I want to see. So now I got got it.
But I will have a period of trying to sit. There will be a period where I'm going to try and sit.

Speaker 1 I'm going to see if I can just encourage everyone. If you notice how I'm sitting, can we all just go back to doing this? Does it work? No, it doesn't.
And then I have to get up. But

Speaker 1 are you at that stage yet?

Speaker 1 I do enjoy sitting through most of it.

Speaker 1 But I think things should have levels. You know, so like I'm not just going to stand the whole time.
And I'm also worried that people can see. Like, I'm very conscious of that.

Speaker 1 A lot of people ain't conscious. You're so bothered.
I'm trying to be

Speaker 1 aware of that. Which is what bothers me so much about traffic.
I'll be going crazy in traffic because people can be so inconsiderate. They can, you know, and like when people

Speaker 1 are standing around, like, I get it, it's a sporting thing, but like, you know, come on.

Speaker 1 Come on.

Speaker 1 So, does it take you forever to get everywhere or does it, is it pretty quick? In New York, yeah. I mean, it doesn't make sense to have a motorcade in New York.

Speaker 1 I know it sounds, that's a crazy statement.

Speaker 1 I never thought I'd make it, but no, it's really, that's what makes New York not so much fun. Because, you know, you're watching people walk faster than you.
It's like I saw him. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Like he left two hours before and

Speaker 1 we picked on the bikes. That's right.
We go everywhere. Oh, you ride in New York.
You ride your bike in New York. You, Keenan, are on a bike in New York.
That sounds a little dangerous.

Speaker 1 One of those electric bikes? Are you pedaling like a human being?

Speaker 1 sometimes but i have my own bike yes and we cycle but we like there's the bike path you know yeah

Speaker 1 i'm like i did the thing through the streets and actually like hit somebody and broke my arm years ago you did yeah which is like

Speaker 1 tell us about this

Speaker 1 So it was like I had a lunch that was like a few blocks away from the studio. So I was like, oh, so you were a grown person.
Yeah, yeah. This was with a job.
Not too long.

Speaker 1 This was when the orange man hosted last, I think. Oh, so

Speaker 1 it was that week. It was like a Tuesday.
So like, I was like, you know, we got to make our own schedule kind of on Tuesday because our riding deadline is Wednesday morning. So like, we got all day.

Speaker 1 So I'll go to a little lunch and then I'll go to work. And the lunch was like

Speaker 1 nine blocks, four out of five avenues. I was like, I'll grab a bike, take a bike, ride in on one of the streets.

Speaker 1 In New York, you know, there's not a lot of space when you're on the streets. On the avenues, it's different.

Speaker 1 But on the streets, it's like parking, parking traffic so there really ain't no space to just be

Speaker 1 in and out yeah

Speaker 1 i've watched that from my motorcade i think this looks dangerous so i'm just like riding down in between you know traffic and parked cars or whatever and of course this guy just came flapping up out of nowhere and then i hit him with you know one of the handlebars like i didn't like crash and flip over necessarily but i hit him enough to make me fall down and then like I was like, ah, man, you know, it hurt, whatever, but I could still move my arms.

Speaker 1 I was like, all right, I'll just get back on my bike.

Speaker 1 It was a little numb,

Speaker 1 but you know, as the time, you know, as the blood started feeling, like that pain started setting in, and like 15-ish, 20-ish minutes later, I was at my desk, kind of.

Speaker 1 So I made it to work, but like, then I started not being able to move my arm. And like, I remember that feeling because I had broke this arm when I was a kid.

Speaker 1 I broke my wrist, but this was like my elbow. And I was like,

Speaker 1 and you older.

Speaker 1 And I'm older. It's an old elbow.
And we got a show to do. Oh, you know, like, it's a Tuesday.

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Speaker 1 Welcome back to IMO, everybody. Hope you're ready because it's officially November.
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Speaker 1 You're

Speaker 1 perfect for our listener question. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. What is it? It's about parenting.
Okay.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 are you ready for the listener question?

Speaker 1 All right. So Julia, our producer, is going to read the question.
Okay, Julia. It comes from Sandy from New Jersey.

Speaker 2 I'm Michelle Michelle and Craig. I have a 12-year-old daughter who's obsessed with YouTube.
We try to limit her screen time, especially as she's reaching those vulnerable preteen years and teen years.

Speaker 2 But one thing she will not let go of is her desire to be an influencer. It's weird for me because it feels like she wants to be famous for famous's sake.

Speaker 2 I'm hopeful that this is a childhood thing, like me wanting to be an astronaut or a TV star as a kid.

Speaker 2 But still, I'd want her to follow her own intellectual interests or think about how she wants to be an impactful person. How do I talk to my daughter about this?

Speaker 2 Why do you think so many people want to be famous? And what would you tell a kid about what it's really like, Sandy in New Jersey?

Speaker 1 Wow. Thank you, Sandy in New Jersey.
Yes. See what I mean? Absolutely.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm very familiar with

Speaker 1 fame wanted or unwanted because.

Speaker 1 I didn't get into this for fame. I got into it because I enjoyed performing.
And I definitely wanted to be successful, but I didn't really understand what being famous really meant.

Speaker 1 And it took a while for me to like navigate, you know, what that is based on, you know, being a person, you know, growing, you know, going through people, whatever you're going through, you also have to be, you know,

Speaker 1 somewhat, you know, courteous to your fans, you know what I mean? Regardless of whether you're embracing that that day or not kind of thing. And it would have been nice to have had someone like

Speaker 1 instruct me in those kinds of ways.

Speaker 1 And it was kind of something I had to figure out on my own, like how to deal with the fact that I can't go to Chuck of Cheese like that anymore kind of thing without,

Speaker 1 you know, being prepared to do this, you know what I mean? Or whatever. It would have been nice to have had a fame manual or something like that.

Speaker 1 But it does have its upsides, you know, like fame can launch you into your profession early. It can be financially beneficial, you know, so if you use it,

Speaker 1 you know, for the betterment of things, then yeah, yeah, it has its perks, but it's also very fleeting. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 So if you're attached to being famous, then that's the most heartbreaking thing when you go to a mall and nobody notices or cares, you know, because at some point you're going to get aged out.

Speaker 1 You're just going to not be like,

Speaker 1 you're not going to treat Leave It the Beaver like the classic it was because it's not your time. And I would say.

Speaker 1 She's right for being concerned about her daughter just wanting to be famous. Yeah.
Because if that's the goal, it probably won't last long. And a lot of these like

Speaker 1 influencer people or whatever usually come and go pretty quickly, from what I've been noticing. So I would focus on like what's the passion behind all that pursuit, you know.

Speaker 1 And if the passion is something that's good for the world, I can get behind that, you know, because TikTok is giving us a lot of information. You know what I mean? So it can be a good tool.

Speaker 1 You know, it's

Speaker 1 really interesting that

Speaker 1 the term fame for fame's sake,

Speaker 1 like we, we didn't grow up with that

Speaker 1 phrasing, right? Right. Those words were around, but that phrasing, um, fame for fame's sake.
And

Speaker 1 it feels more like to me that these young folks are willing to be famous at any cost or at any expense.

Speaker 1 It just, and that feels very unhealthy. It's like it's so important important to be famous that they're willing to,

Speaker 1 you know, how they used to say in the old days, sell their souls to the devil. Right.
And

Speaker 1 I

Speaker 1 want to

Speaker 1 make sure that we let Sandy know that there's a discussion that should be had with your daughter about,

Speaker 1 you know, being famous is okay and being not famous is okay, but you shouldn't be it at

Speaker 1 a cost that's detrimental. It's burdensome.
You know, and I don't think you realize what a burden it can really be.

Speaker 1 Like, yes, it's nice to go to a restaurant without a reservation or whatever, you know, but at the same time, if you look at most of the famous people in this world, a lot of them haven't done well with that side of it.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 A lot of people just want to be able to go to the gas station, you know what I mean, or go to the grocery store without having to like put on brand new Nikes or whatever just because they're a rapper, you know?

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 it's not anything to necessarily play with. And I feel like they play with it a lot on social media.
You know what I mean? Like, how much cash can I show? Or how much, you know,

Speaker 1 how many, you know, this challenge or that challenge. You know what I'm saying? Is that going to like get my likes up for this?

Speaker 1 You know, let me take a selfie in a dangerous position, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 1 But I think artists and creativity, you know what I mean, is a good thing.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I always say there's no way for a young people, a young person to understand the value of anonymity.

Speaker 1 You know, I think the thing that I miss most

Speaker 1 in life is just the ability to be in the world unobserved.

Speaker 1 You know, there's just a beauty to be able to sit on a sidewalk cafe with a cup of coffee. But as a tall person,

Speaker 1 this was the last time you were able to go anywhere.

Speaker 1 Thank you.

Speaker 1 Go ahead. Finish your point.
true but the point is is that that's it's uncomfortable to whether it's because you're famous or tall or distinguishable

Speaker 1 to miss out on blending in in the world and just being able to watch it right i mean that's a that's a pretty complex concept yeah to try to articulate to a young person right that there's value kind of anyone because it's such a dichotomy ooh we getting deep with the word.

Speaker 1 Yeah. It's such a like

Speaker 1 double-edged sword because the grass is always greener. Like the people that are blending in are figuring out how to stand out.
Out. That's right.
So it's like,

Speaker 1 what do you do with

Speaker 1 what the hand? You play the hand, you dealt. But I think the point you make about what I would say to Sandy, I would echo what you said.
Keep your child focused on.

Speaker 1 the passion.

Speaker 1 And if there's a real passion there, you know, then encourage it. I mean, there's some people who look at some child stars that are getting famous or their parents are encouraging it.

Speaker 1 And they're like, ooh, what's going on? What are they trying to do? Well, you know, you don't know that child.

Speaker 1 You know, they may, they may have. And there are kids out there who have such a deep, deep yearning to make music or to perform that it's really not the parent.
It is the child's.

Speaker 1 passion that's speaking. And that can show up at four and five and seven and twelve.

Speaker 1 And so it's it's hard to judge a parent that says i'm just trying to let my kid explore the thing the gift that they were given right that is that's a different thing yeah and now parenting with that that gift that that that's an art that's an art form because you've got to help them learn how to protect themselves as they uh invest in the gift, which means that mom and dad and everybody around them can't want it more than they do.

Speaker 1 And that would be something I would want to make sure that Sandy is clear on is like, when it's your kid, you have to be even more clear-headed about their wants when they're, you know, especially when they're entering into dicey territory of fame or social media exposure.

Speaker 1 Because,

Speaker 1 you know,

Speaker 1 is it you that wants it? You know, um, are you really looking for their passion? Or have you, as a parent fallen prey to the fame and the money and the, you know?

Speaker 1 We grow, you know, we grow, especially kids. Like kids might like soccer today and hate it the next day, you know? So

Speaker 1 we as adults know you got to give yourself space to grow and like continue to grow and become your best version of yourself.

Speaker 1 But if you don't allow that for a child and then you add fame on top of it, it's a pretty toxic mix more than likely.

Speaker 1 And I think that common denominator of the ones that have been able to navigate it is family.

Speaker 1 It is parents that are like behind you and focus, not necessarily pushing you past your boundaries necessarily, but encouraging, yes. And like you said, it can't just be for them.

Speaker 1 It can't be like, you know,

Speaker 1 the crazy mommagers, poppagers, or whatever that's out there that just want to be living vicariously kind of thing, you know. So.
What if your kids said, dad,

Speaker 1 I want to be like you. I want to be in here.
that little. Can we bring my daughter in here? That little one

Speaker 1 she wants to be on, and she's going to be mad if she doesn't get a chance to come in here.

Speaker 1 She can come in and get my little, like, my two little girls. She bring them in, they'll, they'll take a minute to walk down the hallway.

Speaker 1 She's a ham, and her sister's a ham, too. Like, they both get silly and they have their moments, and they want, you know, to be on stuff.
We did a Nintendo commercial together. Oh, really?

Speaker 1 It was the greatest day of my life because they had their own trailer. You know what I mean? And like, they just had their own little world.
And we worked together for hours and hours and hours.

Speaker 1 And they were so focused. And my big girl was like,

Speaker 1 she focuses hard on things. She wants to get everything right.
You know, firstborn kids, I think, have a lot of mental responsibility on their minds.

Speaker 1 So watching her, you know what I mean, like take direction and like take it really serious.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I could have cried all day.
You know, it was so sweet. And yeah, that little one, she just, you know, she wants to be a star.

Speaker 1 She sings, you know and like she likes attention so we are watching her right you know what i mean right because yeah we want her to like understand the difference you know there's a difference between

Speaker 1 enjoying attention and just wanting to be famous kind of thing you know what i mean and like i think enjoying attention can be easily massaged into performance and becoming an artist and stuff like that

Speaker 1 when it's like you just want famous i think feel like you're leaving the arts out a little bit you know which is sadder Yeah. You know? It's a little sadder.
Yeah. And there they go.

Speaker 1 Go say hi.

Speaker 1 You say hi. Hi, Michelle.
Hi. Nice to meet you.

Speaker 1 You got to go say hi.

Speaker 1 How are you? I'm Craig.

Speaker 1 Nice to meet you. Oh, what a young lady.
Hi, Georgia. I'm Michelle.
How are you, sweetie? Good. How are you? Good.
Come on over here.

Speaker 1 Here, you can, I know you're big, but you can sit here so that we can see you in the camera. Sitting in the big seat.
Yes. What grade are you in? Fifth.
Fifth. That's a serious grade.

Speaker 1 Are you going into fifth or did you finish fifth grade? Finish. Fifth.
So you're a sixth grader. Yeah.
All right. Big girl.
All right. Sweetheart.
And Gianna, how about you?

Speaker 1 Hi. What grade are you going in? I'm going to second grade.

Speaker 1 Oh, wow.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 Well, it has been really

Speaker 1 fun

Speaker 1 to have your dad on our podcast.

Speaker 1 He's kind of a cool guy. Do you think? Well, what do you think of your dad? He's a cool guy.
Okay.

Speaker 1 He's cooking. I think.

Speaker 1 Cool guy.

Speaker 1 Cool guy.

Speaker 1 And this is my brother.

Speaker 1 So one of the things your dad told us that he wants to make sure you guys always know. is that you guys have each other forever.
And sometimes you may fight.

Speaker 1 And as the big sister, sometimes she may get on your nerves and your big sister may act like she knows everything and that's annoying but in the end you guys really do just have each other i have two girls too and they used to fight when they were your age but guess what they're best friends now see they live together

Speaker 1 and so that can happen that's the coolest may not be something you can even envision right now but

Speaker 1 but staying close and taking care of you each other as sisters that's important yes it is because then you can be like me and my brother that we love each other so much we can do a whole show together we can work together see about that yeah how many episodes now 20 you see that they've done 20 shows already and you're the first kids we've had on

Speaker 1 your mommy all right all right you guys

Speaker 1 it was great to meet you nice to meet you all right see you bye we'll see you out there all right

Speaker 1 wow they're gorgeous Thank you for indulging me. Oh, my God.
My baby.

Speaker 1 They're the first kids.

Speaker 1 Our kids haven't even been on their face. They won't.
See, that's what happens. Our kids.

Speaker 1 No, they won't. They'll be like, well, good.
Maybe

Speaker 1 you'll get rid of us. You'll stop talking about us.
I love it.

Speaker 1 Well, yeah, no wonder you're putty. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You don't have a chance. Nope.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Shining up these knuckles. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You're going to have to get the uncles ready. Yeah, 100%.
They on that. They've been like, yeah, maybe you let me know.

Speaker 1 Well, Keenan, it has been just a delight to see us. I'm sad that it has to come to a conversation.

Speaker 1 Well, it doesn't. Come to the venue.
Come see us.

Speaker 1 Okay. All right.
But so proud of the man you are, you know, not just your accomplishments, but you are a good man. I tried.
Kind man. Thank you.

Speaker 1 You were clearly brought up with your manners. Yes, I was.

Speaker 1 I got my manners. You got got your manners

Speaker 1 all day long. Yeah.
Well, thank you. It is a pleasure.
Thanks for watching. We'll do part two soon.
We will do part two.

Speaker 1 What am I going to wear for part two? Oh.