No I.D.
No I.D. was created as a different outlet to give flowers to the guests as well has give out jewels to the listeners. No I.D. is a thought provoking and in-depth podcast that offers multiple perspectives. on subjects ranging from sex to controversial topics to race to lifestyle covering all cultural conversations and building a platform to educate but encourage viewers to engage. No I.D. is candid unscripted with the Host/Creator/Comedian Jerome Davis.
https://noidmediallc.komi.io
No I.D.
Seaton Smith's Comedy Journey
Curious about the rollercoaster journey of a comedian who has worked his way up from performing in sushi restaurants to selling out Madison Square Garden? Well, brace yourselves for an intriguing conversation with the acclaimed Seaton Smith. Bursting onto the scene with his unique style of comedy, Seaton has won hearts across the globe on platforms such as Comedy Central and The Malaney Show. Our chitchat with him dives into the depths of his career, exploring his process, the evolution of his craft, and his experiences rubbing shoulders with comedy legends like Paul Mooney and Dick Gregory.
Would you believe if we told you that comedy can be a lifeline in the most challenging situations? Seaton Smith, a beacon of resilience and creativity, shares this belief. From performing in a room with just three people and a TV to engaging a crowded arena, Seaton's journey is an inspiring tale of tenacity. His insights on the art of comedy, the necessity of criticism, and the importance of studying and networking with other comedians are bound to be a treasure trove for both budding and seasoned comedians.
Join us as we discuss the evolution of rap music, the culture of hip-hop in the late 90s, and how it transformed the market dynamics. Seaton Smith, with his love for improvisation and his upcoming album and tour, talks about the thrill of his performances and the excitement of hearing the people walking into his shows. Get ready to be inspired by the lessons learned from a comedian who has successfully navigated the unpredictable and demanding world of comedy. Tune in and expect a good laugh coupled with inspiring insights from Seaton Smith's comedic journey.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to a brand new episode of no ID podcast. I got a somebody here and I'm I told him earlier, is in my top 10. He's coming off the bench. He did a sold out show at Madison Square Garden. Some of us, this 30 and over, can remember him being motif on the Malaney show. He's been on Comedy Central. He's all across the board. I kind of consider him like a smooth jazz type that. I've seen him do some martial arts on his Instagram, choking out motherfuckers. I've seen him do some great things, and one and only the great, seaton Smith. How are you doing today, brother?
Speaker 2:Thanks, man Coming off the bench, I don't mind that so much. Let me think about some good bench buffers. I mean, let's see there was a was it Cooper off of the Lakers. That's the most shit right there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm blue wheels and it wasn't. It wasn't BJP. Now, it was a fuck the car. Come off the bench.
Speaker 1:They did come off the bench. Robert Warwick came off the bench. Robert Warwick got seven rings.
Speaker 2:Robert Warwick came off the bench but he was started with the Lakers. Oh, fuck man, I'm not gonna be thinking about this Good six man who I used to love. Fuck, that's six man ever. Who is that? I know I'm a dude, I'm a water nigga. Is he still a six man?
Speaker 1:Who is?
Speaker 2:it A dollar, wasn't a six man for one of them? One of them teams.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was a six man for the.
Speaker 2:What was the?
Speaker 1:state.
Speaker 2:Yeah, go straight for for the Durant, for the Durant era.
Speaker 1:The Durant yeah.
Speaker 2:Anyways, you know I don't mind the six man, so I'm trying to say go ahead Now. There's a lot of dudes I really respect. I wouldn't put people to live right now, I would not put myself like something like that. All right, what are you going to do?
Speaker 1:Hey, man, I told you earlier, I told the comedy homes because after every open Michael, everything, every showcase, we actually just sit around just like yo. Did you see this special? Did you see this comedian? Did you see this one? I was like bro, like I came across seeing Smith on Instagram I think it was a comics unseen page I was like I just got into like a whirlwind of digging more and more into your craft and your art.
Speaker 1:So I actually appreciate it because, like I said, it's like a smooth jazz type thing. It's like it's a vibe you have turned. Your comedy is like a natural conversation with a smooth. You know where to pick it up and just keep it there at that level. It's just like you're taking us for a ride, for the full set. So I respect it. It's not a lot of comedians regardless of their one or two years in the game or even 20 years in the game, they could really do this and I've seen a lot of comedy in my time. So I got you in my top 10. Like six minutes, like you're like Lou Williams, like three time Envy, like three time even a former, also like Jamal Crawford. It's like you're right there, like it's in my greats like Eddie Murphy, richard Pryor I even got Jerry Sanfield in there Bernie Mac.
Speaker 2:Oh, I didn't know it was all the time I thought it was alive working today. Oh yeah, a lot of real shit. I mean alive. That's fucking really really nice. It's just like I'm hoping to take. Yeah, that half hour was a fun, good energy. I'm hoping the next one after the hour. Yeah, I'm going to take it to a new level. There's a yeah man, there was a new energy.
Speaker 2:I started noticing I used to be really a lot more spastic and then I just, I don't know, I got obsessed with just like there is something else going on here, connection wise, I kind of want to see it also in my life. I just started going on deeper topics and I just found that going at the deeper topics with such a harsh tone was just didn't feel good. It felt good to like kind of easily. I mean, I can yell about getting beat and it could be funny for a second, but then you can really quietly talk about it for about 10, 15 minutes. You really just wear a real flag, oh shit, and I don't know like, but you still need to be just seem like. I guess I don't know His shit was like, he shit was in that world and I was like, how can I get there and still maintain time? It's like, yeah, that flow, shit to me is real beautiful. To me, it's just like, once you get to that world, it's just, that's my favorite. That's all I remember one time it was awesome, 930 Club in Washington DC Years ago, paul Mooney, when he got hot after the show, so maybe it was before 2000.
Speaker 2:Shit, maybe 2004, 2005. Him, and then, randomly, dick Gregory was like, yeah, I want to open up for you. It was fucking weird. Fuck, these two greats decided to do a show together. It was amazing and it was right. When he was, they were all and so they were just, everybody was in the edge, they see, and I remember people just yelling out to Paul to talk about anything, talk about the white guy Did that. He would just sit there and pause and everybody's edge, they see, just waiting, waiting for his words. And I was like, and he wasn't doing nothing to get them all, he wasn't like, he was just like being profound and efficient and just, I don't know, man, I see greats like that. You go. Ok, that's what I got to do one day. I got to be great, you got to try.
Speaker 1:You do got to try, man. Like I saw Dick Gregory perform a few times, like I saw him do the Martin Lawrence first stand up, and it was. It was like who is this? And, of course, like I said, social media and the Internet just brings you more into it, you know. And then my pops. I remember he was a track star, he was a turn off, a state up. I'm like what, patrice, patrice.
Speaker 2:Boy, boy, boy, boy, boy, boy, boy, boy boy. Dick Gregory let's talk about him for one second.
Speaker 1:I thought about he was crazy.
Speaker 2:His life was crazy. He went from a track star to a fat man, to a vegan, to a pro, an awesome ass comic, and then something else. And then, like I saw him come back, he actually did like a weekend at the, at a club when the Martin Luther King statue was opened and he, like he, did an easy three hours in his life Late 70s, early 80s. At that point, easy three hours. I only stayed for about 45, 50 minutes of it, just because I get antsy. I can't. As a comic, comments are really good at sitting down there. We got to walk around, we got to talk to the waitress, we got to go talk some shit. Come back in. But he was a genius, it's just I don't know. Dude, yeah, and back to you, we can go. And, patrice, right now if you want.
Speaker 1:Patrice. Patrice, I was Comedy Central because I think around one o'clock at night on Fridays Comedy Central just went unscripted. So that's when I came across Patrice and then I had found out he was writing for WWF. He wrote the sexual chocolate Mark Henry and then I saw the sit down. When he did he was with Bob second and Roseanne. He started breaking down like how to work rooms and have listen to Kevin Hart and what he, him and Kevin Hart was doing and just how great of a comedian he was. Like this is. Yeah, it was amazing man. I just I got sucked in so like seeing his stand up and seeing how he performed. I was like damn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there was something happening around 2007 for me cause Dan Sluy and Bill Burr. They were kind of like if you think of like comedy as kung fu schools. They figured out comedy from the seller in a way that's like they were the same comic, not like in a hacky ugly, what would be like a really like organic approach. They both, they all three have the same approach and they all in their own distinct patterns. But like I got to open up for him randomly when I got to do the opening Anthony traveling virus tour, I won a contest in 2007 and I won car crash comedy. We got to tell jokes and if they played a car crash that means your jokes sucked Out of 10 people. I didn't bomb. So I got to do a show three years in the comedy. I got to do a show at the Maryway Pavilion was back then I think it was called the Nissan Pavilion and it was, I guess, like it feels like 13,000 or 10,000 people or something like that, and so, yeah, I was really crazy to go from open mics to 10,000 people and then when he get off stage, like I remember Jim Norton went out of his way to be really like, make me feel comfortable and nice Carlos Mancia, when he was really huge, and then Louis CK, before he got hot, hot, fucking Patrice O'Neill just as he ascending, and Patrice was just nice to me. For like two hours Patrice has been just. Patrice has had a like a history of being mean to people and he was like nice to me Mainly because I you know, I looked at him as a God. I was like I can't think of a nigga. I'm like sir, sir, sir, I'm like I'm sitting around.
Speaker 2:Prior, right now, I ain't gonna say nothing negative. Prior punched me in the face. I look like I just pried something bad, but but no, he was. Yeah, saw him 2007. And then I saw him 2008 for the Montreal Comedy Festival. I was like motherfucker and I was. That was when he became a God to me. And then 2009, I got to open up for him randomly in Texas and I remember in 2011, I remember he was he was doing Caroline's and I was like I'll catch him the next weekend when he comes back and I think he died after that and I was like, fuck man, I gotta stop doing that. You gotta see the people, you, that are great when you can, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, we got to. Got to man Like. I met one of my goats back in December. I was doing I was sitting down at the first show. He started doing crowd work and I said you know, he asked me what I did for lunch. I'm a comedian. It was DL Hugley. I was like fuck and he's like he Hmm.
Speaker 2:What happened?
Speaker 1:He let me come on to the second show, which was sold out, and do a guest spot. Now, now meeting him, I'm intimidated. I'm like yo. I watched this guy from the HBO one night specials to the Hugley show, the Kings of Comedy, to just. I just watched Kentarian, probably like two months before I even got to him and, yeah, I got to do a guest spot. I was supposed to do five minutes, I'm not gonna lie, but I blacked out. I was in the zone. I did 15, 20. Wow, and the score that was show.
Speaker 2:Wow, and how was his emotional response to that?
Speaker 1:This is exactly what he did. I see another sad baby boy. I was like okay all right, you know so I and Did you do your entire set.
Speaker 2:What happened? Why did you do 15 minutes? I was supposed to do five and I, when you're mind, when you were on that 15th joke, did you make yourself. Maybe I'm in a vlog.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was, I was. I was like I think I've been up here too long. And then when I came off it was like fuck, I just performed in front of a King of Comedy and he didn't trip about it. He was like I understand, he was like you were so good, like his bodyguard, like you're so good, and then, like all the security would dapple me up after.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, there you go. That's fucking straight. Usually my father's in angry as fuck. You didn't tell me he was angry. Okay, he was angry.
Speaker 1:He was.
Speaker 2:How many comics on that show?
Speaker 1:It was me, it was another local comedian, Kristen Seville's and DL Hugley.
Speaker 2:You said local.
Speaker 1:Local.
Speaker 2:Oh, never mind. How did local nigga do the first night?
Speaker 1:Oh, the other one, it was Bodacious. Bodacious actually had an emergency, so he's like a hometown hero around here because he's from Norfolk. So like he had something came up and that's how I got the spot. But the other comedian that came after me, she did all right but like I had a, I got a standing Oathomize and I was unknowns. When they said Rome Davis, they was like hmm.
Speaker 2:I mean you should probably edit out this part, but that's actually good. I didn't know the circumstance. That's actually yeah, If motherfuckers is dying, they actually meet a good opener. Oh, you got laughs. Thank God, be funny. Okay, Now this is more context. I thought it sounded like a club weekend. You know what I mean? It gave you a funny. Oh, this is like a problem. You solved this problem. That's fucking gross. That's actually a good hero situation, that is awesome that is.
Speaker 2:You do not want to lose a good opener. Fuck man, it's frustrating. It's best with black people. Oh, I said that's home, right, man Fucking hell yeah, man Fuck yeah.
Speaker 2:Fuck, keep rocking it like that. That's how it works. Like people think it takes 20 years to be famous, no, I think it takes about 20 years to be great. Doesn't take 20 years to be famous. My only problem with that is I didn't want to be famous and not great. I was like I didn't want to be like a nigga, like with a great bunch of movies and suddenly can't fucking go do an hour stand up. I don't understand that, because that means my values are probably not in the right way. You know, because, logically, you could write actually sometimes you could write better material when you ain't hungry, but sometimes you can't go live. Also, tell my best work when I'm like desperate. I'm like like yo, I'm really funny. Right now I was because I need money. Right now. I need to fucking get checks, I don't know. Um, I don't know. The right answer is this is fun to live his life. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:It is Do you remember, like that first open mic, that first your best mic and then your worst mic that you ever did, do you remember those times?
Speaker 2:You asked four questions just right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The first open mic, uh, my worst open mic and my best open mic, I mean, uh, my worst open mic. I mean I don't know. Honestly, they're all I mean when they get better. I don't know Like it's so bad you start to, at one point, start to learn to love the bad too, because it's like it's almost like Lao Su's art of war. Or it's like you know, we have an army and you have some cowards. Do you get rid of them or do you use the cowards for other shit that might be useful? You know what I mean. It's like do I need to hate them? I'm gonna be mad at this shitty room with like three people and the TV on. Or is there some jokes and some things I can work on right now that I can need for a desperate situation? Because it's like and this is I like to work in thinking parallels. That's why I started fighting and even now I started motorcycle. Even the motorcycle training is all about awareness and thinking, about practicing for the worst case scenarios, and there are going to be times where, like, there's not going to be 13,000 people laughing. This is going to be tuppled to, and you got to figure out exactly what they want to talk about, to get their attention, because it ain't going to be about you right now. And you got to figure out how to find that thing. Sometimes, because you have no idea, because you are way too opposite people, how could we relate? And, god damn it. Sometimes you go up and relate Another story.
Speaker 2:This is a side note. That's the difference between a good comic and a great. Chris Rock, as we unarguably agree, a great comic. There was one award show, I forgot which one. It's the last five years. It was pretty Will Smith, obviously, but he did the same Will Smith level of shit. Before Will Smith, there was one show where he had he is a writer, he likes to prepare, he makes scripts, he is a fucking workhorse at that, but and so his teleprompter's are not fucking around. That's my jokes I'm working on. There was this one show when the teleprompter went off and they were live. Well, a good comic would fucking tell the world oh, this went off, what do we do? Oh, my god, blah, blah, blah, blah. A great comic makes the situation work. That's who you did. I didn't work. Well, who's here? Who's here? Yeah, we don't talk about that now. I got a commercial, all right, what's next? Like that's. You know I'm saying that's enough of those worked and prepared and like they practiced and like drilled and honed and became a great artist. You know it's, it's uh, I don't know that. That's the shit that fascinates me this age, like Jesus, like oh, I can ramble about this shit.
Speaker 2:There's this one Documentary on YouTube, if everybody could check, called white stacks. White stacks it was a documentary that was supposed to try to Counteract when everybody was doing that Woodstock. There was a woodstock documentary and everybody went crazy. Well, black people like they made well, let's make a black version of it called what stacks, and it was a concert they had at the LA Coliseum in LA or the Rose Bowl. He was a Rose Bowl and they had like a bunch of great bands as a case headlined it Staples, the staple sisters, and that. For that, the guys, man, they were on stage. I'm just.
Speaker 2:This story is going on, but I'm telling this point. I think this dude was such a good he could I could, I just respect MCs got on stage, he's doing his thing and everybody was sick. He was on the field, everybody's in the stands. He's like I want everybody get on here, get on the field, get on the field. So suddenly, like 10,000 people are just slowly respectfully getting on the field and respectfully dancing. And then somebody to the security tells him a man, we actually can't have them on the field. He's like, oh, oh shit, I'm a bad. Hey, y'all I got, we're gonna get off the field. We don't get off the field.
Speaker 2:And then there's one dude who didn't want to get up here. He sat down and asked like I want it off. Oh, we got a problem now. And then he started doing. He started fucking right, like just doing the dozens on. Like fucking long. I'm a line line looking at you Drum start jumping in. And then I get it. Other people get these motherfuckers off. And he just just to see a man with art Control 10 to 20,000 people, this looks. It's like, oh, you don't just that nigga didn't learn that that day that dude has been in places where niggas like shotguns and fucking Deal with shit. So the 10,000 people one shit I see for kids ain't nothing you gotta worry about a motherfucker. Why did I get my money? So no, I don't know. I respect great artists and great professionals. Yeah, I see that should happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like the block part. They should pose block party. When you had the technical difficulties right there in the movie Straight great artists right there. Because he was on the fly, he brought in some crowd work. He started bringing the guy with the Puppet because it was raining out, so he was just going off the top and that's that's great, that's a great performer right there. That's that's crowd work. That's the artistry of Actually drilling and being in those crazy rooms. Like I was in the room one time with a Malcolm X had on and a fucking Muhammad Ali shirt on and I'm thinking I'm in front of a maga rally with all these white folks and I had. I thought I was gonna make it out there on a Tuesday. I said whoa, good God, this was this restaurant called bad habits.
Speaker 2:I Was a black place. No it was a white place bad habits, what kind of food they serve.
Speaker 1:Like a bar. I don't remember the food. I know they had something. It was like cod fish, it was spaghetti. It was like Italian, you had fish.
Speaker 2:Why were you there? Is that a comedy show?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was open mic.
Speaker 2:I'm telling you, man, comedy puts you in places. This is why it's really hard to be super ignorant. If you do all the rooms, you just start to get to know, because you'll see the racism and I ain't saying it ain't there you just start to. I'm not forgiving it either. You just start to see it sooner and deal with it sooner and go like, well, let me avoid this, motherfucker. You just see, I don't know about. I've done deep Pennsylvania and I've just seen. But I've also done deep Arkansas and I'm like, oh, it's okay, it's more racist north. Okay, cuz normally is why she say it some of the people actually know what's wrong. So go like you know, go around it. No other people, just a lot of property. I don't know. Um, but uh, now a really man and this is fun. You know, the Saturday I probably should eat food. Um, keep going. What's the next question?
Speaker 1:So, in these 20 years of doing comedy, what have you learned? Like, what is that, that thing that you've learned that you've kept with you Going, going every time you perform on the stage? I Did.
Speaker 2:The biggest thing really is, uh, take care of myself emotionally first before I get on, before I try to take care of other people's emotions. I used to get on stage all angry and shit and I didn't really understand human beings are, emotionally speaking, like Takes about 15 minutes to change person's emotion. Like if you're really angry, it's don't take about 15 minutes. You stop being angry if you actually are trying to be, if you actually stop looking at the angry thing and actually breathe, you know. So that's why a lot of times when you have anxiety for a stage, kind of daughter need, give yourself at least 15 minutes to just Get yourself to a either a calm place or a fun place. But that Preparation time is the most important. Outside of the jokes and jump, the jokes will come if you prepare. But I think that's that's that's my biggest one right now. Like, oh, support. I used to know one of my like famous people think that shit. They're always in their dressing rooms closed the doors and it wouldn't. Why are they being so diva ass like no, no, no, there's a thing that happens. You can't expect to control other people's emotions when you can't control yourself, like I've said that twice now, but that's like you're pissed off. Would you to make other people laugh? What if I think that even doesn't work? Do you not know how emotions work? Oh, now some hours, mother shit.
Speaker 2:Like great writers, great screenwriters, directors they always say they're like you know being writers, just writer. A great psychologist, you're a great Archaeologist, you're great researcher. You're like you're a multiple thing sitting comedy to. You're not just the greats aren't just making fun of shit. There's other things going on, like you.
Speaker 2:Look at Carlin. His word play wasn't just word play. It was like playing on our consciousness of what our ideas of what life was like, just with these little word plays, because our word, we build our life through our words. This is my crib, this is my home, it's my life. No, they, we always do the worst. It was like to break down those words and realize those meaning really kind of always just breaks down your foundation to live it in life.
Speaker 2:But also, patrice, so near that, the same thing, because it's like you took this whole big myth and big archeological idea of like I Mean, this is fucking obviously 20 years before me to fucking crazy. But he was trying to take around this idea, archeology idea of trying to tell dudes like me back then who was being dominated by his girl To be treated this way, because that's what I heard. A lot of people heard the whole Massagenistic shit and now a lot of toxic dudes now use it to get attention. And it's just funny because a lot of people don't understand when you hear toxic massively, like Andrew taking all them shit. If you take out the term woman and just put blank, every Group hasn't person that says that same shit, like the actions are the same, it's just the word that labels are different. You know, all these niggas do this. All these I'm around.
Speaker 2:I had that epiphany once I was doing a show in Boston and it was like nine white comics before me and they all did a bunch of Polish jokes. It was weird. After the fifth comic the Polish jokes I was like this is fucking weird, that this is a thing y'all do. And then eventually I started close my eyes and go, what if it's replaced Polish with nigga? And I was like, wait a minute, these jokes I can see that and I was like wait a minute, lot of stereotypes like that man.
Speaker 2:They ain't really specific like that, it's just fucking oh, how I got that. Tangent shit is weird. But yeah, that's that's interesting to me.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, it is, it is. I see it is like I did a show where they literally talked about jacking off the whole time. I like, damn, like this is all we do. Nobody's getting no actual Vagina, no, nothing. I was like yo, this is, this is too much. It was too much at I actually came on the stage. I was like I think I had to clinch my pearls a little bit when I got on the stage. I was like you know, I talked there's too much dick talk right now Like whoo, and I know they was happy when I went up there because I don't talk about.
Speaker 1:I Stay away from the, the, the butt jokes that in the dick jokes. I tend to stay away from that shit because I don't really think I Mean you. Could you go on the stage say, man, jack my dick off, or I stuck a thumb up my butt and you'll get a laugh. But that's not really. That's not the art. You know, like I take a collect. Well, I go to a safe space, a performer safe space every Thursday. Well, we kind of break down all the arts from comedy, poetry, music, acting, and we start to break down the different things, like, now that I've been, I've been doing company four years, two years in the pandemic.
Speaker 1:I've watched specials after specials and a lot of times and please don't take this any wrong way I like to watch it on mute, like I watch your special on mute, in the way that you focus on the crowd work, especially when you hit the Donald Trump tried to be racist. He tried, he tried. You was, you were making a connection with that crowd in front of MSG and they got what you were saying. They. They was like, oh, he's about to talk about Donald Trump, but you took him for a spin like it was a, it was a word, it was a word playing the setup that I actually appreciate the art of, because I've been to professional shows before and I've seen professional comedians like Just just really have no, no, no subject, no, no, call back, no setup, no, nothing, it was just straight dick jokes.
Speaker 1:Let me just do all crowd work for an hour and people were laughing here in Virginia and I laughed too. But when I got back I was like it was really nothing. That that sizzled in my spirit from them and I was like, damn, I'm really out of 50 bucks. But but it is what it is. You know, I want to see you perform one day, hopefully. Oh yeah, I gotta set this tour thing up. I'm gonna. I think I'm gonna try to do something this fall.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna do a bunch of small one-nighters and just see like what's like. Yeah, I got like. Yeah, back to your reference about dick jokes. I I find that like, yes, I respect my father's who are cleaning, don't talk about they did, because they are actually gonna make a lot more money in life. I'm proud of them and I'm like, yeah, keep working on it. I know, for me, since my hardest laughs in life usually ended up being dick jokes, I kind of like can't let it go. You know means like what else. I I can still always reference like oh, that job. I Can still always reference like oh, that job, like, but it's a child to send me like I'm one time and this is really really bad, but we used to have to sing along since sixth grade I just sing along every week. It was boring, it got really annoying, you know proud Then one time we were doing the.
Speaker 2:Aladdin song, I can show you the world. And then I remember here some dudes laughing. What are y'all laughing about? It's like replace the word world with dick Shammer and Shammer, tell me, princess. And I don't know, it's this great. I just love that shit. And so, yeah, I'm still a sixth grader but I'm also sometimes got to talk about Trump and say some smart shit and it's like that kind of I Don't know, just position made me giggle for that special. You know, it's really. You know, because also we're all animals, we really only care about food, sex safety, family and love. And Once you don't break those things down and always boils down, that's the driving force. It kind of keeps things and then, you know, things get very intellectual in our minds, but the intellect always is connected to our animal. That were animals acting like we know we're doing the. It's kind of yeah, yeah, that's a nice way to say it. That's supposed to say this is the whole evil world with idiots. Now we're just animals trying to figure it out.
Speaker 1:That's true. How is it working with John Mulaney? Because I had him like Seventh man on the bench. To be honest with you, I is working with baby JI mean he's um, I think he's a genius.
Speaker 2:For me he helped out a lot of flaws that I did not notice. I think, like comedy is an apprentice ship. I think the best comics Opened up for really great comics and the shift happened for them too. So I think, like in my opinion there's a lot of comics who figured out themselves right. But Like being with him for two years I got to be like oh, like it's the little little things I wasn't even noticing. That was just just a tight, and the whole shit up Made me a lot more confident and a lot more fun. And being around celebrities is fun as well. It's like, oh shit, this famous motherfucker. See, like that Malala woman who won the Nobel Prize, she came and did backstage say hello, just that shit, you know you spell John Stuart. And then her, you're like fuck, I ain't fucking force gunk land. Yeah, man, I watched baby J.
Speaker 1:And then, like I said, got into a spin or watching the Milani show and you played motif Sparring comedian and that was. I was like that's real shit right there, because we go through those things, we got a right. Did we ask people how does this sound? Or you trying to come up with a set, or you may get stuck on the joke. I'm stuck on a joke right now. That's kicking my ass and I don't want to give it up because it's so good in my mind, but we'll work on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, jokes are awesome. Like that man, they're just seeds got a water. Keep coming back to, especially if you say it out loud to yourself. Just keep saying it out loud. I mean also, I'm a nerd. So there's also a lot of books on how to help you expand on your thing. They always introduce you to the main four introductory books. You know Judy Carter. I think Judy Carter is a very incomplete a picture of a book. I may help a lot of people get them started, but I don't know.
Speaker 2:There's so much more deeper things to consider, especially if you want to get better. I mean, there's a lot of comments that kind of start to learn on the fly, but I'm not one of them. I need to like do it. I need to see what I did. I need to study other motherfuckers, I need to be a nerd about it. That's why I'm noticing. I'm like again, do another arts. Once you see other arts, you have to see how you excel.
Speaker 2:Like once I started fighting, I was like, oh, this is how I learned, and then, like, my ego was getting away with a lot of comedy shit, like, comedy, shit. I'd be like man, motherfuckers. I want to stay at what I'm doing because I'm deep in shit. And then every time I got criticism in comedy, that's how I reacted. But then when I started fighting, anytime anybody gave me criticism, it was because I was getting punched in the face. I realized, oh, they're trying to help me not get punched in the face and that kind of started letting me like open more to criticism and like, oh okay, well, how are you trying to help me not get punched in the face now in comedy? Okay, okay, I can see what you're saying.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, yeah, that's why I go to that class on Thursday, man, I need the criticism to see where I'm at. Then it gives me a chance to network where the creators as well too. So, but, like the way me and James Cooper were talking about your stand up, cause I'm like, bro, you got to hear this guy man, he's like man. I've been watching Mexican God on Boots. I'm like, okay, that's cool and he's a great comedian, but listen to Seton Smith. So I send him your clip. He was like, yeah, okay, I see what you're trying to go at. My question is to you what's up with the suits? Is that like the style? That's the like cause you came with the suits. Like I said, it's a clean look. It was like smooth jazz, bro. It was like this shit is jeans. It cleaned up the look Like cause that was fun.
Speaker 2:It was fun. Just cause it was, I'm a Lanias wearing suit. As you know, it was an accident. We were doing a show at the Red Rocks in Colorado and the Cad Rocks is like an amazing probably the best venue to meet in the country, because it's in the desert and it's an outside, it's an amphitheater and it's cut literally out of rocks. So it's like they found a rock, cut the seats, cut the stage, cut the walls and then you can go like see the Denver skyline but also watch the show. It's one of the most beautiful places and they have the big screens and stuff. So we were doing the show on an Easter Sunday and we had a 3 pm show and a 7 pm show and somebody was suggesting hey, it's Easter Sunday, why don't we all just wear suits for Easter Sunday? And yeah, we did the show.
Speaker 2:And that was when Chappelle came the first time and I remember he had a waiting line because it was just such a big place and small ways to get in. He had a wait line anyway, like everybody else, so he had to sit through my set and I think he's known for years and never had to sit through my set. Oh no, I was one of those things where you know busy so you have to, you know. But when you're two big mega screens in front of you, know 13,000 people and you're in line, you might as well look up. And I think it was a and he looked. He's like, yeah, you look awesome up there. He was really funny, he looked great. I don't know. That compliment was like we were on one of the 10th compliments that day and I was like, well, chappelle, things look great. I'm wearing these suits. So suits are fun and you know that was just fun.
Speaker 2:And yeah, yeah. It's interesting, though, too, because I thought if I wore the suits, people would stop comparing me to Chappelle as much.
Speaker 2:And then that didn't happen at all, and so I was like all right, well, let that shit go and I can do about that Cause. Like me and Chappelle, we both have professor parents, both started comedy in DC, both admire the fuck out of Tony Woods. So you know what are you gonna do? I don't know what I'm gonna do. I admire a bunch of other people that love Tony Woods the fuck. Tony Woods is one of the best geniuses of my time, you know. I think he's one of the best ever. Um so yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I saw Tony Woods last summer at the funny bone and I remembered him from Bad Boys, a comedy, so wow.
Speaker 2:He just collected some amazing sets on TV Like he's just yeah, it's a brilliant, brilliant dude. Yeah, I thought he wanted. My first time I got to see him he was in a fucking sushi restaurant had open mic in DC and I remember he was 17 years of comedy at that point. I asked him such an ignorant question. I was like how much time do you think you have? At this point I was like doing comedy 17 years, Hours and hours, not in my face. It was a geeky question but I was like oh wow.
Speaker 1:I know and just to see him from what? Bad Boys, a comedy. And then I suck, man, I forgot to set, but I remember the joke. He was like man you ever go to your job and say, man, fuck this job, I forgot. I forgot where he was at, but I watched his sets. I've listened to him a lot and that was like I got another homie. That's a story to him. I'm like bro, you got to watch him Like his story is very descriptive, it's not too much, it's just like the right punch. Like this man spent a whole six minutes on Bad Boys and coming to talk about his trip that you make to go into the islands and I say, if you watch my, if you watch Seaton Smith, like you got to watch his wordplay in his callbacks, it's like I say like a carlin somewhat, but I say that.
Speaker 2:You ever carlin? Yeah, I was.
Speaker 1:It was like it was like a carlin. I was like this is great. But I do appreciate everything Like give me this interview because I had. I was in Connecticut for a competition, I was doing some trials for AGT, I was doing a lot of stuff and I appreciate the interview. I was telling everybody I got this guy even before today. I got this guy man, he sold out MSG. This is Seaton Smith man. I got to get him on this show because he's, like I said you, my six man coming off the bench.
Speaker 2:So that's very nice to say. I didn't know I didn't sell out that was open. One day I'm not going to the universe yes, one day I will sell out MSG, but that was definitely his show. It was dope, though, because I remember I seen Louis CK Open up for a rickshaw base and then Louis CK the MSG, so you kind of go like all right, let's see if we can get that going.
Speaker 1:See, that's what I'm talking about. Man, is there, is there any advice that you want to give to those comedians in the game, or anything you want to say to them for them to keep going or find, you know, find that lane in this comedy work, because it's a lot, it's a, it's a, it's a good path.
Speaker 2:I mean, art and business are two different crafts, so appreciate it. I like, um, what is it? What advice? I think the advice the other one was just get your emotions right. I mean, really, comedy is an awesome ass tool to actually help you emotionally. It's a few. It's interesting.
Speaker 2:I got into hypnotherapy and I got like understanding how it come by, where it came from, the roots of it all and realizing techniques and hypnotherapy were implemented in the theater arts in the 50s, so a lot of the emotional product. Let me be more. Let me use better words to be more clear. So you ever see motherfuckers do improv? Yeah. You ever see how they're, like, really passionate about improv yeah, that's hypnosis at its best. They're doing group hypnosis exercises as posing as fun games and they are fun and they are games, but they also were taken from medical situations to help people deal with trauma and a lot of our own comedy based things we do in stand-up.
Speaker 2:What we've learned do come from that. We just don't know it. It's just one of those like oh, fuck, like, yeah, man, once you I don't know if you ever take communications and realize this isn't even a period on shit. This is basically marketing. Marketing understands how to actually go talk to that animal aside of you to make you buy shit. You know what I mean. And they actually weaponized it, while we're artists and we just wanna just be, we just want attention, while marketers know what we're doing and actually use it for something. Kevin Hart actually knows it. That's why he's a billionaire.
Speaker 1:But a lot of us are just slow down man, hey, hey, I'm probably.
Speaker 2:This is why I speak for young comics. I understand the big scope of it all. Like you know what I mean. Like you are a businessman, just you know this could be a fun business, so you know how fun would it be. Nobody's gonna give it to you. Don't forget that there's no giving in this business, but I don't think nobody thinks that no more. I was in the transition from like I think I was talking to Hannibal Burris about that. I think Hannibal was like I think he would have been the last motherfucking of who was just giving shit, Cause there was a time when motherfucking was just.
Speaker 2:If you just worked the business model before 2013, or even 2010,. What my business it was a solid business with no comedy was be funny. Go to the right clubs, you'll. Somebody will see you, you'll get picked up. That was the funny, and I even got picked up by Asians. It's from that formula, but then that was a legit formula, but now that's not a formula at all. Like you are not going to be given nothing, you have to bring value, and then then it's crazy. So that's what I'm. That's all I can say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, if you guys do get a chance those that's listening to watching just type in Seaton Smith on YouTube. I promise you will not be disappointed. My podcast is called NoID. This is the eighth season.
Speaker 2:When's this coming out? When's this coming out?
Speaker 1:Shit. I'll make you the season finale, so 19.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, this by then I got my special is going to be it was. The album is going to be released by 800 pound gorilla and they're going to be releasing a special on their page, which has millions of followers. So you know, either check my page out or check out his page, where it's going to be a nice blow up. So this fall may see a lot more. It's nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I follow 800 pound gorilla actually.
Speaker 2:My mouth will be having this fall. Man, I'm really excited for that. It's going to be cool.
Speaker 1:I'm excited for you, brother. I run and see. I know I'm going to see great things. I already see great things. But thanks, man, thank you, you know what I mean. I'm just giving you flowers, brother. So I think everybody deserves the white on this earth. You can follow.
Speaker 2:Thank you, you do. You're absolutely right. Everybody forgets, no matter where you're at, you forget Like what the fuck you be like. I remember I told a friend hey, I released a special six months ago. Yeah, I know I'm like, oh, I didn't. I literally don't know who is paying attention. I'm going to be acting like a white here. You know what I mean. Like I literally was on two radio shows actually earlier this week and I just said, yes, you know, after the special they were, you got a special. I was like, how did y'all invite me on? You don't even know, they were just nice people. And I was like, okay, so those two-screen people don't know. But it's also like weird how you never done. Oh, so so thank you, brother, I appreciate it, man.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Make sure you look up Seaton Smith on all platforms, man, and check out the comedy I won't check out live from MSG on YouTube. Check out some of his earlier work. Follow me, comedian Rome. Follow the podcast, noid, on all platforms. If you looking on social media, noid Media TV, not only will you get podcast, but you'll get stand up comedy as well too. I post a lot of my clips up there as well too, so we're trying to make it. We're still in the mama's basement right now, so we're trying to make it. Appreciate you, brother.
Speaker 2:I like this. This is fun. I should do this.
Speaker 1:You should do this more often, brother, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:If I just talk to my friend. I'm bored of him. I just face time for him randomly. I should be doing this. I just didn't know You're on my podcast and they go up.
Speaker 1:I just don't know, hey man, you're golden eyes man. I definitely, like I said, six men coming off the bench. Man, that's dead or alive.
Speaker 2:So Nah, man, that makes me really, that makes me really, really, really nice to just say I'm a yeah, really, really, really, really nice. I'm not, to be honest, I actually don't want to be the greatest, because we kind of don't grow after that. You kind of just kind of sit around in your own stew and be that. I'm like nah, I just want to keep getting. I like the idea of like, even though nobody really wants to talk about this man, there's no, he's very pariah. But Cosby, Stop growing. That last special he did. He could not. You can objectively say it's much better than himself. Like every line of it. It was his performance, his structure. I loved it much more than himself. Oh, in my opinion, and you go oh, wow, I can't believe it. Fucking late seventies, this dude still, because I saw Don Rickles right before he died. He was still sharp, but it's still his old shit. So it's like huh interesting. So, anyways, I'm yeah, keep growing until you die. It's kind of my old thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely Hell yeah brother.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, you know what I was committing crimes and shit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't, I don't know. I think people sleep on cars be a lot too man. They don't realize like the shows, the movies and even his timing and like Uptown Saturday night, that's like one of my favorite movies and I was. I fell in love with him. And then people don't realize, like even in his later career, if we just talk to television, cosby in my opinion was better than Cosby show. That's when he was helping Jacobs the retired baggage handler. That was a great fucking. That was a great fucking show. That was a great fucking show.
Speaker 2:Really, that was your argument. You thought it was better Interesting. Oh, you know, I think it was a different time and that's probably was emotionally. I know that their window of time they got off the Cosby show oh shit, my shit getting low, but I just don't get nerdy.
Speaker 2:But the Cosby show, I think we're a lot, a lot on the cultural references, you know what I mean. Like if you ever do a comedy show where you'll see a comic, we'll just start pandering to the crowd. That's what I'm talking about. All these beautiful black women in this crowd right now. You're a nothing but beautiful black, just a glass of yourself. Beautiful, like he would do shit like that. It would be like Jacob Lawrence painting. Let's talk about that for an entire episode, or, like you know, this is black.
Speaker 2:Like your favorite memories of that show is not necessarily funny, except for, like, when Elton was doing the impression of Cosby. That was a funny moment. But the big moments was when they did the Ray Charles song. That's the shit. We were like, oh, reference upon reference upon reference. And then the Cosby was just hard jokes.
Speaker 2:So I was like I was in a different place emotionally. This is like because I was early, 89 was like, oh my God, black on TV, and then we had that crazy blackest motion. And then by the late 90s we got fucking dirty and raw and the culture and mood on, because we were from like once we had death jam, it's like we started losing my fuck. It was like a weird channel, because that's when black rooms started to get super, super raunchy. And then it was like, well, now you only have a certain dynamic market that can listen to you. It's like once you go super raunch, you can't go broad. Now we're getting specific in business and shit. And then we're like I don't know, I'm going to be obviously whatever. Now I'm just rambling. Yo, thank you for this interview.
Speaker 1:This has been dope man, appreciate you even doing the interview, man, and yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to the album coming out. I definitely look forward to the album coming out.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much, man. Yeah, I was really interested in getting to doing the arena laughter with the situation. I don't know. I think I'm actually more excited to listen to the album because I got like two different sound people in the arena and I got this movie guy and I wanted him. I just wanted to get the sound of people walking in. You hear his like literally footsteps. It's like such a delicate fucking thing. Just because it was like I wanted him. I wanted him because the problem with arena sounds. You don't hear how crazy it is. It's fucking. You've got to understand what it's like to have $13,000 people in one room. It's fucking. It's like it's just over stimulation, anyways. So anyways, yeah, watch it, enjoy it, comment, share it everybody, friends. And yeah, man, watch out for my new shit when I got a tour coming.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, man. Hopefully you come through Virginia brother, so I look forward to it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, man, definitely going to do this East Coast run this fall, hell yeah. My man appreciate you, brother All right brother, All right Peace, man Peace.
