(Audience applauding)
- What up?
- I literally was just talking about this backstage.
I'm like, this dude, every time I see you, I feel
like I just should try harder in life.
Like, like, because you look so good all the time.
Like even in casual jumpsuit, you somehow look
- This is swag.
- like you're shooting a music video.
I'm like, it's, you just look so nice all the time.
I have to point that out.
- I have to, you know, you have to, you have,
you have to flip it sometime, you know?
I always wear the suits.
- It looks so good!
- So, this is like, this is, what is this?
This is like casual...
- Athleisure?
- Athleisure, swag.
- Chic.
- All those.
- Yes.
- So wait, happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
- Yes. Yes.
- So do you remember the first time that you
learned about Dr. King?
- Oh yeah.
I think it was, you know,
of course it was elementary school, I think.
- Yeah.
- You know, maybe third, fourth,
fourth grade.
You have to do the speeches.
- Yeah.
- You know. You had to get up, and, you know...
- Were you good at that?
- Oh man, I, I had, I had a deep voice as a little kid.
- Oh, you were rocking.
- "I had a dream..."
(Audience laughs)
- We, we had to memorize it.
We had to, did y'all have to memorize it?
- I'm five, I'm five years old.
"Every now and then..."
We, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
But you, yes, we definitely had to memorize it.
- We did too.
Yeah.
- And it was this thing thing where you kind
of had to tag off, like in the class you would do a segment
of it and then somebody else would do it.
- Yeah.
- And, and it was important because
you wanted to be a part of the flow.
- Yeah.
- And you learned that
you learned the whole speech then.
I remember that.
- It's powerful.
- Yeah.
- It's moving.
It's, it's interesting cause I remember even as a kid
I didn't even know the impact of it or what it really
meant whenever I learned it.
- Yeah.
- But it, like, while you're doing it,
like, this you still feel it as a kid.
I think that's powerful.
- Oh yeah.
- When it, when someone can reach someone
at such a young level that doesn't even comprehend
the depth of what you're saying
but it still touches you and impacts you.
That's an incredible gift.
- Yeah.
So true.
I mean I think that's, that was the spirit of who he was
and what he was saying and what America was going through
because you like, like you say, I was super young then.
- Yeah.
- And so, but you definitely recognized it,
you know, like what it was for
and what it was about
and who he was as a person.
So I remember just, you know
a quick story was like,
I lived in a small town in Missouri.
Caruthersville, Missouri.
Shout out, Caruthersville.
And it was a restaurant that was fairly segregated
and this was early seventies.
And, and my mom made us learn how to,
because we, they, they, they allowed people to come,
black people to come.
And so we sat at home and learned how to really like
hold our knives and cut steaks
because we're gonna go to this restaurant.
And it was important for us to be able to look presentable.
And so I just remember that like this distinctive memory
in my head of like having to learn how to cut a steak
because I'm getting ready to eat around white people.
- That's, it's so crazy to me that that,
you know what I'm saying?
That time.
- Yeah.
- Like, that's just so...
(Laughter)
Your face!
Which by the way...
- Which is why...
- I don't even,
I don't even know if I know how to cut a steak.
- And then they was in there, yeah,
I was like, mama, look at that white man.
He eating it like this.
- Yeah, yeah.
Meanwhile, I'm like got a fork
in mine and I'm like, "it's so good!"
It's like jerky.
- A steak. That's how I would've done it.
- I know that's, it's, it's, it's sad
that she had to kind of instill
that a little bit of fear of like, make sure you fit in.
Don't stand out.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- That, that's kind of hard.
Like, I, I've had a lot of conversations
on this couch about how, you know,
depending on, you know where you're from,
who you are,
you have to have different conversations with your kids.
- Yeah.
- And it's a sad thing,
but it's also sad because
I feel like, you know
we're gonna be talking about this later
this amazing documentary, but it's like,
are we ever gonna change?
Like, is it ever gonna really progress?
Because I feel like we're kind of repeating the same things
the same incidents are happening
the same things.
And it's, it's just a, it's a
it's a cruel thing to have to teach a kid that I think
at a young age.
Because it...
- Yeah.
- Because it sticks with you.
It has to stick with you in your mind.
Like, why is she teaching this?
Why do I have to do this?
Why? You know what I'm saying?
- I, I saw, I saw somebody talk
about this the other day.
It's this idea of identification
where you are the center of the universe.
I mean, you know, theoretically black people
we always had to assimilate.
And so we think about how we fit in or how we are accepted
in a situation as opposed to owning the power of
I am, I am the center of the, the universe.
I, I can be me.
My hair is not anything special.
It's not that different.
- I'm the lead character in my story.
- My skin is not, you know...
I am who I am.
You know?
- Yeah.
- And so you, you have, you take power with that.
- I love that.
(Audience applause)
We had your neighborhood co-stars,
Max Greenfield and Beth Bears here
and there was a little bit of a debate
about something.
So do you mind taking a look at something for me?
- Sure.
- Okay, let's take a look at the tape.
I just feel like,
who do you think the best dancer is on set?
If we're gonna have to be honest
about this conversation.
- Who did you say?
- I honestly feel like it's me.
Why are you laughing?
Don't you think it's me?
- No, no.
- Who?
- I think it goes: Cedric.
I actually have never seen Tashina dance.
She's an incredible dancer.
- Tashina would say it's me!
Tashina would say it's me.
A hundred percent.
Well, Kelly.
- So I'm gonna go Cedric
and then I'm gonna say me and
then I'm gonna say Beth.
- I love it.
- Yeah.
- Beth 100% was like obviously me.
- She's so confident.
- Yeah.
- She has the one move, though.
It's, it's gonna be, she's gonna twerk.
- It's the one.
- It's a twerk and it's not a very great twerk.
It's not.
- I was like, she's very thin.
- Yeah, she's thin.
- So, this might be an interesting twerk.
- Making this study would be like, girl, come on now.
- Who gets your vote out of Max or, or Beth?
- Oh, Max! Max..,
- Okay.
- Max, Max is smooth, man.
Max, you know.
- He chose,
he chose you though.
- Yeah, well I'm the Denny Terrio of, uh
it's for the, that's for the older people.
- Older people of the audience.
- Everybody like, "Who?"
No, no.
But I, you know, I definitely, you know, I definitely
have the dance moves.
- Yeah.
- You know, 17 years on Soul Train,
you know dancing.
- That's so cool!
- I did not dance on Soul Train.
- I grew up watching Soul Train and,
and I loved it so much.
I did. I loved it.
- With big leg kicks, you know,
- They did crazy stuff.
Yeah. But it was cool.
Somehow, you were just like,
yeah, I could do that.
- You can't even do that in a club right now.
I just would imagine going out
and just do a big leg kick out of nowhere.
- Oh my God.
I mean, I feel like anytime
I haven't been to a club in a while
cause I'm like a single mom,
but like, I'm like
I feel like when I went to clubs too,
it was just, guys just do one move
and it's just like inappropriate.
Like, I didn't come here for that.
I didn't come here for you to just be like...
- Yeah!
- I'm like why are you, why are you
behind me right now, sir?
Like I didn't, it's weird
but I didn't show up here to meet you.
- It says a lot about you, Kelly.
- I'm just saying,
don't do that to people.
You're turning her off.
That's like the best way to turn her off.
- Yes.
- Like,
- All right.
- Face her, sir.
Anyway, our next guest.
- I'm gonna have to text my friends.
Don't.