- What's going on Tom and Fortune.
Tom and Fortune.
That sound like a good superhero duo right there.
(Tom and Fortune laughing)
- [Speaker] This is "What a Joke"
- [Speaker] With Tom Papa and Fortune Feimster
- [Speaker] On Netflix is a Joke Radio.
- I would see Jay at various points of the pandemic.
We did the outdoor show.
We were all masked up,
trying not to be too close to anybody.
(Tom and Fortune laughing)
- You know what's great?
I'm so glad the world is opening back up, man,
because a drive-in show is different
from a normal comedy show.
It's one thing to walk out of somebody's comedy show,
but having to pull out of it
is a total different level of disrespect.
- That's right.
- How much of our egos are you expected to take.
- Exactly.
Let's see you turn on your freaking headlights,
you got to adjust your mirrors,
you got to connect your Bluetooth.
There's a lot of steps that just say,
I don't mess with your material than we need
- Give 'em the finger out the sunroof.
(all laughing)
- Try harder! I don't know.
- Boo!
- I felt that not doing stand up, I couldn't speak.
So I just had to like,
get back into the rhythm of speaking fast again.
- I'm used to talking to myself every day,
so it wasn't no different for me.
I was just, I was in my living room again.
That's where I was, you know what I mean?
- Do you talk to yourself?
I found myself on this last trip
and I was literally having conversations with myself.
I was like, am I losing it?
Or is this okay to do.
- It's okay to do, it's okay to do.
But you're asking a crazy person, so you know.
- But you also have different characters you can slip into,
you can play around.
It's probably a lot more musical.
I was just like, where's the outlet.
(all laughing)
- Jay, I was curious about what got you started
as far as the impressions,
and did that start early on for you?
- Yeah, I was six when I started doing my, I was six, yo.
What was I watching?
Aladdin and I just started impersonating Iago
and Gilbert Gottfried.
He had such a nuanced voice,
and I picked it up and I remember my girlfriend at the time.
Yeah, I was six with a girl.
(Tom laughing)
She was like, you know, you do a really good Iago.
You need to pursue that.
And I was like, word, thank you.
And I just, I kept building the characters
and before you know it, you know, I turned into this.
(Tom and Fortune laughing)
- You're so good. You're so good.
Because you have different subtleties
that other people don't have.
It's more than just the voice.
- It's being able to morph into a,
just morph into the character.
And just stay there and be comfortable enough
to sit in that cerebral space
and then to freestyle as that person.
Every show I go on and I'm doing all of these,
I don't, there's no script before.
They literally, they'll give me a list.
They'll be like, okay, what about,
this one, this one, this one, this one?
I'm like, all right, whatever, man, let's do it.
And then they give me a scenario and I just go off the top.
And hopefully it's funny.
(Jay laughing)
(diners applauding)
- Thank you.
(blows air)
(all cheering, clapping)
- Now it's time to see
if that wish actually comes true or not.
- Ooh.
- Erica Wilson.
- Wait, wait, wait.
- Will you marry me?
- Yes. Yes.
- Yes? - Yes!
You will? - Yes!
(all cheering)
- Erica.
Erica.
(laptop thudding)
That is not healthy.
- This movie, man.
This movie is...
have you seen it?
- No, I haven't.
"Resort to Love" on Netflix.
I haven't seen it yet.
- Alicia Keys produced it.
- No! (Fortune gasping)
- Oh, that's got my ears perked up.
(Jay and Time laughing)
Ay.
(Fortune laughing)
Did you get to meet her?
- I met Alicia before,
but she wasn't on the, she wasn't on the island.
She was checking the dailies though.
I'm sure if she would have known how nice it was,
she would've came.
- For real.
- You know, a lot of people don't even know, man.
I've been in theater since I was eight years old.
How many years is that now?
Well, I'm 33...
So yeah, 25 years.
- Wow - Yup.
As long as I can entertain somebody
and take somebody's mind off of the,
the atrocities in their life, if they have any.
And just make them feel better
about whatever they're going through.
Like, I'm good.
Whether that be acting,
whether it be a live comedy,
whatever it is, man.
Rapping, singing, whatever it is.
If I can make you feel better
then I feel like I've accomplished my goal.
And I've done what I set out to do.
- And where did you grow up?
- I grew up in Chesapeake Virginia, 757 area.
Shout out to Timbaland,
shout out to Missy, Pharrell, Lawrence Taylor,
Allen Iverson, Alonzo Mourning.
- A lot of people.
- Wanda Sykes.
Bob Saget.
Bob Saget is from my area.
I didn't know Danny Tanner was from my area.
- Yeah, holy cow.
- So what were you doing at eight in the theater?
- It was "Mice and Mozart."
Yes, I remember that was my first play was "Mice and Mozart"
and I was one of them,
I was one of the mice.
And I was in the chorus, and I remember I came in,
'cause when I was eight years old, man,
I was a little, I was hefty.
I was a little hefty eight year old.
So everybody else looked like a mouse
and I looked like a rat. It was crazy.
(all laughing)
- But if Beverly finds out we used to be engaged,
it's gonna cause so many problems.
So please just--
- Wait. She doesn't know?
- I can never seem to find the right time.
- You know what, I guess.
It's never really a good time
to tell your new fiance
how you walked out on your old fiance
a month before the wedding.
- Wait a minute.
I didn't walk out on you, okay?
You walked out.
Every single day to the studio
and you know what?
By the time the job offer came up in Charleston,
there wasn't a relationship to even walk out on.
- What, so you leave without talking to me,
and I'm the bad guy?
- Listen, you were never there to.
You know what.
Rehashing this--
- Rehash?
(Erica laughing)
You know what? It was never hashed.
You were just gone.
- Okay.
I did not do 48 hours of therapy for this, okay.
We're going to be here for a few days.
We can avoid each other easy.
- Yup, mm-hm.
Don't expect me to sing at your wedding.
- Good. I don't.
Tell 'em you sick or something. Call in.
- I will gladly do that.
- Well, good.
But you're not going to tell Beverly about this, right?
(Erica yelling)
- Go, go, go, go, go, go.
(Erica exhaling sharply)
- You do so many impressions of like great,
I mean like heroes, like really amazing, amazing people.
Can you share any of the best moments
of running into the real person?
- And your Denzel is so good.
- Denzel, yeah.
- Let me tell you about that story first.
So, you know, he got honored at the,
he had the Lifetime Achievement Award,
the AFI people, they honored him, right?
So I got an invite and I was like, this is my chance.
I'm gonna take it.
This is not going to be the same situation
where Prince was five feet in front of me,
and I said nothing to him.
I'm going to go up to him, I'm going to talk.
I walk up to Denzel.
He was like, oh okay, all right, yeah.
You owe me a lot of money, negro.
You know that, right?
You owe me a lot of money.
You know why?
I'm keeping you hot, you know. Yeah.
(Tom and Fortune laughing)
- I say Mr. Washington,
could I please get a picture with you?
And he goes, yeah, you can get a picture, can you bend down?
If you can bend over, I'll take a picture with you.
'Cause I'm not gonna get up.
I was like, you know what?
I don't normally do this,
but I'ma bend down for Denzel.
Bend down is what it was.
I said, I ain't gonna bend over,
but I bent down.
I bent down, and we took the picture.
I'm clearly more enthusiastic about this picture
than he is.
(all laughing)
Meeting Jay Z, that was crazy.
Some people you can feel their energy
when they're in the room.
I don't know what it is.
It's like, as soon as they walk in, it's like,
I said, yo, he's here.
I turned my head.
He's standing right there.
I was like, (yells)
I was like, whoa.
And he looked, he was like, yeah, like, yeah, how are you?
(Tom and Fortune laughing)
I'm good...
Shawn. I'm good
And then his homeboy was like, yo, do the Jay Z impression.
I was like, no, not now.
I don't want to do it right now.
And Jay was looking like he was waiting.
- He's like let's see it.
- And I was like, yeah, you know um.
Yeah, it's kinda crazy that, you know,
I'm at SNL with, you know, Justin Timberlake
and you know, entertaining the crowd here.
You know, everybody loves me.
Sh'yeah I'm the new Sinatra, uh, uh, uh.
Everybody's laughing.
Jay Z just gave me a look like, yeah, shoot.
(Tom and Fortune laughing)
He comes up to me, he gives me dap.
He goes, yo, yo, that was perfect timing.
(Jay laughing)
(Tom and Fortune laughing)
And every time he sees me, he calls me fake Jay Z,
it's so funny.
- Oh my God. That's amazing.
(waves crashing)
(birds chirping)
- Then you went out on "The Tonight Show"
and got a standing ovation, by the way.
- I got on "The Tonight Show," like the weirdest way.
I got told no, like 19 times,
and one of my friends,
he was like, you know what you should do?
You should read the book "The Secret."
I was like, oh, okay.
So I was too lazy to read it,
so I watched the documentary on YouTube.
(all laughing)
At one point, there's this traumatic, like, woosh.
And they go, now's the time when you pause this program
and you wish for something unreasonable.
So I paused the program and I was like, okay universe,
I'm a regular at The Stand in New York.
Maybe Fallon, maybe he could come see me
and then he'll have me on "The Tonight Show."
All right, I got to make this unreasonable.
I want to get a standing ovation.
So then two days later I get an email
from Michael Cox, the Booker.
And he's like, hey dude, you have a showcase
for "The Tonight Show" on Sunday.
- Oh, wow.
- So I'm standing at the bar.
And then at the time, one of the owners of The Stand,
Dave walked by and he just looks at me
like you have no idea what's about to happen.
And then the next guy was like,
hey Pete, it's me Jimmy.
Dave told me to come see you.
I just live right around the corner.
And I was like, oh yeah, man, cool.
I'll come have a beer.
And the first thing that I said to Jimmy Fallon,
is I go, oh my God, "The Secret" is real.
(all laughing)
(upbeat music)