Our next guest is not only insanely talented,
he's also one of my closest friends around here.
His new season of OMKalen starts October 3.
Take a look at this.
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's up freshest of them all?
It's me, baby!
Oh, look at that dripping down with the black spectacles.
Mm-hmm.
Child, 'cuz that's what your mouth going to look like when
you get out of them fillings.
Where do I start?
I just-- we'll start on this side.
OK.
I don't believe that people know me.
They know a piece of me.
They know how I talk about things.
They know how outgoing I am.
They know how energetic I am.
But they don't know me personally.
And that is why this is a new era for me.
It's a new dawning and I'm calling this part
of my life The Reintroduction.
Please welcome my friend Kalen Allen.
[MUSIC - IKE & TINA TURNER, "PROUD MARY"]
(SINGING) Big wheel keep on turning.
Proud Mary keep on burning.
We're rolling, rolling, rolling on a river.
We're rolling, we're rolling, rolling on a river.
Hello!
It's so good to see you.
Kalen!
[INAUDIBLE] looks lovely.
Oh my goodness.
Man, this is awesome.
How are you?
I'm good.
How are you?
I'm blessed and highly favored, baby!
Absolutely.
This is kind of crazy.
We sitting in this position right now.
This is my first time actually interviewing you
in this setting.
Yes, it is.
This is nice.
And look at you.
You in the big chair.
You got a new title co-EP, honey.
Thank you, thank you.
I need you to give me $20.
OK?
I need a little bit of that money.
I got you.
No, man, we had a lot of time to really talk and connect and get
closer during the pandemic.
We did something really important
on Juneteenth taking over Ellen's account, right?
We did.
And I can honestly say I that it was my favorite moment
since being here because we were able to talk about something
that we have celebrated our entire lives that is deeply
rooted in our culture because Juneteenth
is the celebration of the emancipation of slaves.
And we were able to have a real, authentic, and just
honest conversation about it on one of the biggest platforms
ever.
And I think it was one of the most amazing moments.
100%.
And I think also, though, those moments
are so important because when you can connect with somebody
and be unapologetic and talk about feelings that are real
and know that you're not alone no matter where
you are on the screen, right?
I think that was important, too, because a lot of people
know us from the Ellen Show.
And obviously we bring light and love and things like that.
So when we start talking about real things,
it can seem like it's a little left.
So it was really great to connect with you on that level.
Absolutely.
And I really do.
And I just-- yeah.
I appreciate you so deeply, man.
Thank you.
All right.
So listen.
Quarantine at home has been challenging for me.
I know that.
And you've been doing a lot at home.
How has quarantine been for you?
It has been interesting.
It's been very busy.
And I'm a homebody, right?
But I like to be a homebody on my own wheel, right?
Now every now and then I'll go out to the park or whatever,
but in L.A., y'all, they done turned it into a damn gym OK.
Now I want to be out there.
I don't want to see y'all doing it all the time.
And the air quality is so bad here.
Forget a mask, I need a ventilator at this point.
And that earthquake we had the other day, baby, now
that one really scared me, OK?
It really had me shook, literally.
Did it really?
I just looked up to the Lord and I said,
baby, if this is my time to go, I
guess it's my time to go because let's get up on out of here.
It wasn't that big, though.
Are you kidding me?
No.
Baby, the TV was shaking, Carter was going crazy,
stuff was falling over.
I'm from Kansas.
I'm used to tornadoes.
I didn't know what to do.
And I'm on the sixth floor.
I was like, baby, I guess it's time to go.
That's it.
It's a wrap.
Listen.
Let's talk about this new season of OMKalen.
Fourth season coming.
What can we expect?
Well, I am calling it The Reintroduction,
and let me tell you why.
Because after this most recent Black Lives Matter movement,
I witnessed a lot of backlash.
And I lost over, maybe, 100,000 followers and more.
And it was crazy to me that all these people who had
said that they loved me so much all of the sudden
we're turning against me because I was speaking
about a situation that directly affects
my life on a daily basis.
And this is the thing.
People very much started to operate in a place of shut up
and entertain me, and Kalen don't play them games.
I don't do that.
And so I said something needs to change right here, right now.
And so I decided that I wanted to revamp OMKalen.
I also wanted to relaunch my YouTube and start a podcast.
Very nice.
So I'm excited.
I love that.
You know why I love that?
It's because the voice continues to extend, right?
And it's very important to say because we,
as entertainers and as people, are not a monolith.
We're not.
And also as Black people, we're not a monolith, right?
So even though you might know us for entertainment,
that's not the only thing in our lives.
Exactly.
We got more with Kalen when we come back.
Hi, I'm Andy.
Ellen asked me to remind you to subscribe to her channel
so you can see more awesome videos,
like videos of me getting scared or saying
embarrassing things like ball peen hammer,
and also some videos of Ellen and other celebrities,
if you're into that sort of thing.
Ah!
[BLEEP] God [BLEEP].