- Before you became Cedric the Entertainer,
well, we were all different things, right?
But, you were Cedric the Claims Adjuster.
- Oh, yeah.
- How'd you end up working in insurance
for a living, and I want to see it.
- I worked for State Farm, I worked...
(laughter)
- I worked for State Farm, I was uh-
- Good company, solid company.
- Yeah, uh, State Farm, uh, you were in good hands...
- You were in good hands!
(laughter)
- How did you talk to people about their accidents?
- Aw, man, I considered myself bilingual,
'cause I spoke regular English and Angry Negro,
that's what I was there for.
(laughter)
- Oh my God!
- The Black people come in, they threaten you the most
about they car, like, you know,
"Oh, you gone fix this right here!"
Then everybody'd be, like, scared,
and I'm like, "bro, come here, come here man, lean on it."
- You calm them down?
- Yeah, bro, you not, that- you-
people want they cars totaled for
little to nothing, so they can get a new car.
- Absolutely.
- But I was a really- I was not a good claims adjuster,
'cause I was starting my comedy career at the same time,
so I would leave people in rental cars
a very long time, like...
(laughter)
- Which was good, if you looked like-
wanted to ride around in a cool new car-
somebody might be in a rental car to this day,
right now, because of me, I'm....
- Just still waiting, waiting...
- Twenty years riding around like...
in a Malibu.
- Did you enjoy it?
Because I enjoyed some of my previous jobs-
I really liked some of them.
- It was- that actually was a good job,
because I got, you know, you had the office
and then you would get out sometimes,
'cause you have to go around and
see people, stuff at like, shops,
to make sure they were working,
so that was fun.
But then, I sold equipment, I mean,
like, electronics for Best Buy
- Oh my gosh!
- at one point in time...
- Another great company.
- Oh...
- I get lost in that store.
- But, the job- job- the job that was-
I was most embarrassed I was in the do-
I had graduated from college,
but I didn't get a job right away,
and I had a paper route, I threw
the Wall Street Journal, and so...
- Oh my gosh!
I actually think that's so...
- You did?
- Like, nostalgic and endearing, like,
a paper boy, that's cool!
- Yeah, but I was grown, I was, like, 27.
- Oh!
(laughter)
- Not cute.
It was not, uh...
- I actually- I forgot to put that together
- Yeah, yeah exactly!
What, I'm like, on my little brother's bike...
- So you're like, a grown man...
- But my mother was, like, not payin' my car insurance,
so I had to get the money from somewhere,
- You were like, I gotta do it.
- So, I was like, (vocalizing)
- I've had a lot of jobs that I didn't
particularly love, either, but...
- What you do?
What kind of stuff?
- Oh my gosh, I've done everything.
I have sold vac- well, for one day, I trained,
and then I sold Kirby vacuum cleaners for one day,
because I was like, what?
Like, we just throw dirt
on someone's floor, and the man was not happy,
I left, I went to a gas station,
and my friend picked me up, I worked-
actually, I was a cocktail waitress
at a comedy club for years, Hyenas,
I worked at a pizza joint, Papa John's,
- Nice.
- I've worked everywhere, you can- zoos,
I've worked everywhere.
- You worked at the zoo?
- I worked at the zoo, and here's the thing,
I was so excited about it, but Texas heat,
that's not real fun, right?
- Oh...
- And so, you're outside, and I was new,
and they put me by the monkeys,
what- so, I was like, "that's so adorable!"
And then I got there, and the
whole place just smells like monkey poo,
the whole time.
- Yeah.
- I'm just breathing in-
- And they will throw it at you-
- Monkey feces.
- You know, monkeys will..
- Yeah!
I wasn't that close, but...
- Monkeys will throw it at you, you know...
- I do love the zoo, though,
- Yeah.
- I think the zoo is awesome, but, anyway...
- Oh, that's nice.
- We heard you left State Farm, though,
without a final performance review.
So, obviously, we wanted to clean
this up for you, right?
So, we invited your old boss, Daryl Anderson,
to take care of that.
Where's Daryl?
(laughter)
(cheering)
- Classic!
- So,
- Aw, that's awesome.
- Daryl, what was Cedric like around the office?
- When we interviewed Cedric, I mean,
he came in with so much energy,
he was so comfortable talking with people,
we knew he'd be a great fit, so,
we had no problem bringing him in.
- Oh, you were a joy!
- Yeah, I was good, see that!
- Okay, well, would you like to finally
give Cedric that performance review?
Because I'd like you to.
- Okay.
- Okay, okay- on a scale of one to five,
Daryl, how was he at customer service?
'Cause somebody's maybe still driving
around in a Malibu, so keep that in mind.
- Uh, you know, I would give him a five,
simply because he worked in a tough environment,
where there were people coming in,
and most of the time people weren't happy
when they came in, and after they talked to Cedric,
they always left with a smile, so probably...
- Oh, that's good!
- See?
- It's all great.
All right, on a scale of one to five, Daryl,
how was he at getting customers in and out?
- Um, well, I mean, I probably would give him
a one on that, and that was only because
I don't think he missed an opportunity
to work on a routine or some of his jokes.
- Yes!
- So he'd keep people a little bit longer
than they needed to be there.
- I talk a lot, too, I get it.
- Yeah.
- Do you agree with that?
Were you kind of a-
- Yeah, that's a pretty good assessment,
because we would also have these little rooms,
where you go and try to talk to people,
and, once you get somebody in there,
you can just, like, "where you from?"
You know, like...
"You know what, my cousin went to that school."
And so, you know, you off and...
- You just start to- you just-
- Yeah, you're just like...
- you distract them.
That's how you discract...
- And I would have- and I would definitely
have files, he could tell you this, too,
because, I would just let stuff pile up,
because I did comedy at night,
so I would come in to work, just, dog tired,
so, it would be days, where it would just be
claims just piled up on my desk.
And he would have to get other people
to come help me like, kind of service my claims.
People be callin' and I-
- Well, Daryl was nice.
- And I hadn't got to them.
Daryl was great.
- Daryl was nice!
- You was great, my man.