- Let me ask you this, man, I heard
before you were an actor, before you were a comedian,
that you worked in corporate America.
- Yeah, yeah.
- What'd you do?
- I was in marketing and events for Anheuser-Busch.
- Anheuser-Bush?
- I moved from Atlanta to Dallas, so I started
doin' comedy at night, but had my corporate job
durin' the day, and eventually I was like,
I don't think I wanna do this no more.
- What made you make the decision to make the switch?
What was it, man?
- It was like, there was a certain point in
my twenties where I go, I look at people's
entrepreneurship and, like, what you wanna do
once you wanna believin' in yourself, and it's like,
man, at some point, you gotta gotta roll the dice on you.
- Yeah. - You gotta, you gotta,
(audience applause) you gotta--
- Yeah. - You gotta bet on you!
You can't always wait for somebody to try to
hand it to you, and that's like,
because the best part about it is, like,
I mean, yeah, you know, the money's comin' in
and my parents are happy, all this kinda stuff.
But really, the best part about it is being
able to tell the story of how I got here.
- Yeah.
- You know, like, I mean, people don't even know,
my first sitcom, I was on a show called Whitney,
and I was still, I was sleepin' on a air mattress,
(audience laughs) (laughs)
and it was like, people like, "Oh man,
you must be livin' real nice!"
I'm like, "Man, I gotta pump my bed up at night!"
(audience laughs) (laughs)
(audience applauds)
(grunting)
You gotta make sure you got no keys in your pocket!
(Steve laughs)
(audience cheers)
- Everybody has to understand, don't no matter
who you are, and where you are, we all in a
process, you didn't just show up on Fam, on CBS.
- Yeah, I went to Starbucks and they went like,
"Hey, you wanna do a show?"
- (Laughs) Yeah, yeah.
You said somethin' great, man,
you said at one point in time in your life,
you got to bet on you.
- You have to.
- You got to bet on you, man. (audience applauds)
- And it's scary!
It's scary, 'cause-- - Yeah.
- If you know how crazy it is, you know how
crazy it is to tell black parents you gonna quit
corporate America and do comedy?
(audience laughs)
'Cause you go, like, "I'mma do stand-up!"
They like, "Sit down."
(audience laughs) (laughs)
- Oh, I had the conversation!
- I was like, I got a degree, I had a career,
they like, "You 'bout to go do what?
Nah, nah nah nah."
- Oh, that's real, man!
I told 'em that the day after I won amateur night.
I won amateur night, $50.
I went to work the next day and quit my job,
went home to my mom and daddy house and told 'em.
My mother looked at me--
- (laughs) That's what they say!
- "We goin' to church Friday night,
gon' have the bishop lay hands on you."
(audience laughs) (laughs)
Yeah.
She was through!
"This boy done lost his mind!"
- The first time my parents came to see me live,
they drove nine hours to come to Shreveport,
Louisiana, to come see me.
And when I say nobody showed up at the g--
it was Christmas Day!
(audience groans)
Christmas Day.
And now it's hilarious, at the time, not so much.
(audience laughs) (laughs)
It was like 14 people there Christmas Day,
and, ooh, it did not go well.
It was real bad, so it was like--
- That's ugly, man! - It was not a good Christmas!
- That's ugly. - And then, and then,
about 10 years later, I did my first special,
on Showtime, and they got a chance to be there
and watch the whole thing, and they loved it.
(audience applauds) - Yeah.
(audience cheers) - So it ended up bein'
like a nice--
- So they had the chance to see your evolution.
- The growth, yeah, the growth and me
findin' my voice in my what I do, and in
my perspective, yeah, so like, and they're
very proud, and I talk about 'em a lot.
My father, I always make fun 'im 'cause
when he was 50, he looked like, just a lighter,
like a very light-skinned, like, black dude,
like, over the last 10, 12 years,
my father has turned into a 5'7" Filipino man!
(laughs) (audience laughs)
(audience applauds) (claps)
And all my friends, all my friends are like,
"Yo, we didn't we know your dad--"
Where, where is he?
I hate these jeans so much. (laughs)
(audience laughs)
I came home, I came home one day,
and he was, he was goin' through my closet,
they were my pants, worked as, he was goin'
through my closet, and he found a pair of jeans,
he was like, "I like these!"
I was like, "Man, you keep those, burn those!"
(laughs) (audience laughs)
(audience applause)
They're just so wide!
- But he was goin' to Roscoe's, though!
- Man. (audience applaud)
- Hey, Tone, thanks for stoppin' by, man!
(hands slap) - Thank you, Steve!
(audience cheers) - Hey folks, you can catch
Tone Bell on Fam Thursdays at 9:30 PM Eastern,
8:30 PM Central on CBS!
Tone Bell, everybody! (audience applauds)
We'll be right back!
(funky music)