- I remember the day I was leaving for LA.
I came into the office
and they were all in the conference room
and I was like, what are they doing?
And they were like, "Oh, oh, like here she come."
They were was scrambling.
I was like, what are y'all doing?
They're like, we all taking a dollar bet
you ain't gonna make it.
(laughs loudly)
I was like, what?
They were like, Kym, no one makes it.
No one goes out there and just makes it.
- That's why they architects, they weren't brave enough.
- And they shouldn't because they were very funny
and my brother should have been a director,
my other brother a comic, but that became my motivation.
There's no way I could go back.
- How you gonna put a dollar on my dreams?
- They put a dollar, a dollar. (laughs loudly)
But my mom said, "Hey, if it don't work,
you can always come home."
- So you moved to LA, what age was that?
- I moved to Los Angeles, I was probably,
'cause I had to get out of college.
So I think I moved there when I was 23 years old in LA.
- Oh wait, I have a story where I moved to New York
and I bought a hat specifically to throw in the air
like a (indistinct)
I'm so corny (laughs)
Did you have a moment like that, where you step off the,
you're like, I've arrived or?
- I did, the palm trees made you like,
I'm in LA and I did what you're supposed to do
as a black person.
I went straight to Soul Train.
(laughs loudly)
I was like, I'ma be a Soul Train dancer, yes I am.
- Did that work out?
- It worked out and until-
- You were a Soul Train dancer?
- I was so -
- Why is this not in my research?
(laughs) That's amazing.
- I didn't make it. I didn't make it the whole day.
(laughs loudly)
I got kicked off the set before I really got on film.
I think I got on film for a little bit.
It was a whole little debaclement with Jackee
and Jackee Harry and looking like her
and her sister worked on the set.
- Girl, it seem like Jackee always starting stuff.
(laughs loudly)
- She is, she always started something.
And that's what happened to my dreams
of being a Soul Train dancer.
- I know you then went on to star in Beauty Shop.
What made you go towards theater
rather than something else?
Was it a decision or just something that happened?
- Well, Beauty Shop, Shelly Garrett's Beauty Shop
was the first of its kind.
Usually plays are advertised on the radio,
but you don't have a piece of the play on the radio
or is advertised in the newspaper.
Well, this is the first time you ever heard Beauty Shop,
and then you hear a scene from the show
and I was listening to it, and I was like, wait a minute.
What is that?
That sounds like fun.
And I went down to the show
and I waited for Shelly Garrett to come out,
and I said, "Please, please, please.
I gotta be a part of your production.
I heard it on the radio, what can I do?"
And he was like, well,
"I'm having auditions for understudies tomorrow,
come on out."
- That's a Hollywood story right there, like, wow.
(laughs loudly)
- I told him, I said, I'll sweep the stage,
I'll do craft service, I'll do whatever.
- But for him to be like tomorrow,
like that was meant to be, right?
- It was meant to be, until I sat on the side of the stage,
and got tired of sitting on side of the stage.
- Oh, you made it on the stage?
- Oh yeah, because I went and wrote a part
and handed it to him.
I said, you don't have a church lady in your show.
Oh, I was in hustle mode.
I said every Beauty Shop got a church lady coming in
and I wrote it and I gave it to him
and then I was on the show the next week.
All the understudies on the side were haters.
They were like whoa!
I was like shit, you better fit in.
Get in where you fit in.
- I was talking to Marlon Wayans earlier
and he was saying one thing that he always remembers
is that you have to create,
if you can't wait for the opportunity
and that's basically what you just did.
You were like, you took an established play and was like,
I'm gonna write my own part and they gave it to you,
so that's amazing.
What then made you get into comedy
and stand up and-
- Well, that's a whole 'nother story.
The problem is I thought I was famous when I wasn't famous.
Now I look back and I was like, you were nobody
but I thought I was.
- A big part of this, whole thing is delusion, isn't it?
That's what keeps you going?
- It keeps you going and I think
because I knew all the security at every event.
That's the first thing you do in LA-
- If you can get in, you famous (laughs)
- I'm famous, I got into the Emmys,
I got into Soul Train Awards,
I got into every club, 'cause I knew all the security.
I didn't sleep with them, I said I knew 'em.
- Well there's a tip right there.
- But it was a funny girl
and I always let them think they was gonna get some.
(laughing loudly)
You do like that, tell people aha, I got you.
- I'm already in.
- Yeah, you're already in.
They seen you next time, be like, I got you this time.
So when you first started stand up,
you talked about being around Red Foxx
and Eddie Murphy and all those,
you have any stories you wanna share or any-
- What you tryna say?
- I mean, no no, no, not like-
- I'm rich. I mean now,
I'm in casting couches a whole lot of problems,
but I was like, I ain't even get no opportunity
to (laughter drowns out Kym)
I was like ain't nobody come after me.
But I will say I was on the set
of Eddie Murphy and Red Foxx.
- Was that Life?
- No, no, no.
You gotta go back with-
- Eddie Murphy, Red Foxx.
- Eddie Murphy Red Foxx, Richard Pryor.
- Harlem Nights.
- Harlem Nights. You better say it.
Harlem Nights, remember the little boy
in the beginning played that Eddie Murphy?
Well, Desi Arnaz Jr,
but Desi Arnaz was in an acting class, his father.
And he was like, Kym, I got to work.
He said, can you go to the set?
He got a part, could you go to the set and be his chaperone?
I said, sure.
I was on that set and I thought I was already an actress.
I don't know why I was walking around hitting craft service,
but I was his guardian, that's what it was.
And I'll never forget,
at that time I had started writing down a couple of jokes
and I went around a corner
and they were waiting on the next scene
and it was a Red Foxx, it was Richard Pryor,
it was Eddie Murphy and it was Reynaldo Rey.
And they were all back to clowning
and I walked around the corner and I was like, you know,
you see the stars like that, I was like, oh, oh.
And I'll never forget Reynaldo Rey said, try to be funny.
Here all the comics trying to be funny to,
he said, "Oh girl, you wanna sit?"
He said, well, as long as I got a face,
you got somewhere to sit.
- Oh no. (laughs loudly)
- And I looked at him and I said,
"Well, as long as you got a face like that,
I guess I'll be standing."
And Red Foxx spit his coffee, Richard Pryor got up,
they were slapping five and I was horrified.
- You were like, well, I guess that's the end of this.
- Oh my God I just-
- Got here.
- Why? But I didn't understand that.
I was like, oh my God, why did I do that?
When I turned, Red Foxx came up to me and said,
you're very funny.
He said, "Do you have 10 minutes of comedy?"
First of all, 10 minutes, that's like an hour.
I was like, what, what?
No, he said you should be a standup comic.
He said, I'm tired of seeing these ugly bitches be funny.
I never forget. I was like, oh my God,
and you know, that's back in the day.
And I said, okay.
He said, "Get 10 minutes together and I'll help you."
Well then my mother in my ear, when you go to LA,
there's got to be sex, drugs and rock and roll.
So I was looking at Red Foxx,
I was like, he is sex, drugs and rock and roll.
And I never took the 10 minutes to him.
Never used that opportunity.
The night he died, I did my first two minutes of stand up.
because I felt like I had missed an opportunity.
- That's a good story.
Could have been a better story had I taken the 10 minutes
and been a lot further in my damn career.
- Everything happens how it's supposed to happen.
- Or I could've been snorting cocaine with him.
Something would have happened.
(laughs loudly)