-You look great. You look like a million bucks.
You don't look tired, and I would have thought you did,
because you went on a vacation with your family.
-Yes. Yes, I did.
-And you have a couple of older kids
and you've got a 10-month-old.
-I do, yes.
-And you took your 10-month-old to the Bahamas.
How was your first trip with a 10-month-old?
-You know what? It was great. -Okay, good.
-I got a good 10-month-old. -Yeah.
-He's, like, a 10-month-old, but he's like 30.
-Oh, that's good. -Yeah, he's very, very relaxed.
Like, he's extremely mature. He can chill.
He can just watch TV.
But he'll change and just look at you for a while.
There's sometimes where you got to pluck him,
make sure he alive.
-Yeah, right.
That's the one downside of a chill baby, yeah.
-"Hey, man, are you breathing, man?"
He'll just sit with his mouth open.
But he's amazing, man. I love him.
-Here you are with your family, and I want to --
First of all, I should note you went --
There's a pig -- A beach that has pigs on it.
-Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Pig island.
-Pig island. -Pig island, yes.
-So, there you are with some pigs, but --
And that's fascinating, but what's more fascinating --
is it fair to say that your entire family
is wearing the same patterned swimsuit?
-100%. 100%. -Okay.
Gotcha. And was that an accident or on purpose?
-No, it's because I'm black. That's what we do.
Black people -- we like to match.
It's a thing. We go overboard with matching.
I am that dad.
-Congratulations on "Night School."
This is a really funny film.
And this is based, on some degree,
on your own experiences, yeah?
-Yes, 100%. It's based on second chances.
That's what the whole purpose behind the movie is.
You know, I think so many people frown on second chances.
You know, when you don't get something right the first time,
ultimately, you're down
and you feel like, "I'm not going to do it.
I'm going to go in another direction.
It's over."
Well, this is a movie that shows that it's okay
to go back the second time and give it your all
and take the things that you didn't do right the first time,
apply it to that second time, and come out better.
And, sometimes, it takes a third and fourth time, you know?
[ Cheers and applause ] -That's what this is about.
So, I'm a victim of not getting it right
the first time for a lot of things.
-You've got a great cast -- Tiffany Haddish, Taran Killam.
-Yes.
-You also -- I know, in the prep for this, you got to --
You were a principal for a day in Dallas.
-Yes, I was. Yes.
-You gave sort of a TED Talk of sorts to kids in Atlanta.
-Yeah.
-What do you try to impart upon students?
-Well, the first thing is rules.
You know, when I got to be principal for a day,
I felt it was very important to make my presence felt.
You know, I'm a big fan of Joe Clark on "Lean On Me."
-Uh-huh. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Yeah, yeah. That's right. Those are the people that know.
-Some Joe Clark fans. -That's right -- Joe Clark.
He's the real deal.
"You smoke crack, don't you?" That's one of the best lines.
But I said, you know, I wanted to change some things.
So the first thing I did was --
I said, "We're going to have chicken nuggets every day."
-Yeah, that's good.
No one's going to fight you on that.
-I like nuggets. That was a great rule.
I took all the toilet paper out the bathrooms,
replaced it with baby wipes,
and said, "It's important that we all wipe our asses properly."
-Okay.
-You now, that's something I did.
-Especially after, like, nuggets every day.
-Yeah, after nuggets, you're going to need it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You get it. You get where I'm going.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-And I was on a roll, and then the real principal came,
and he was like, "This has to stop."
-Yeah. -He took my bullhorn away.
And then I gave, actually, a real speech
and I told the kids --
I said, "It's very important to embrace this moment
and really understand what teachers are."
I now, at the age of 39, understand the importance
and value behind these teachers.
You know, teachers are investing time, energy
into these kids because they feel like the kids
are our next generation's leaders and groundbreakers.
And I said, "Your biggest reward to them is
by doing something with your life.
Take advantage of this time and really apply yourself."
[ Cheers and applause ] And, you know, it was good.
It was good because they related, they responded.
They identified with what I was saying,
because it was coming from me.
-It's a fantastic message to give them.
I also -- Another thing that's interesting is --
you know, I think people look at you and they think, "Oh, my God.
You're so successful."
Everything you do is successful,
but you have also had films that did not particularly work.
You were in a film, "Soul Plane."
"Soul Plane" was not a huge box-office success.
-Yeah.
-But you have a theory as to what went wrong here,
and your theory is based on --
-Well, it got bootlegged.
My movie was bootlegged before it came out.
Do you know the background of "Soul Plane"?
-I don't know. -Oh, let me educate you.
So, "Soul Plane"...
"Soul Plane" was supposed to be the one.
That was going to take me out of here.
-Yeah. -Oh, my God.
It's about to go down, okay? -Uh-huh.
-This is -- Here it comes.
Somebody give me the money train,
'cause after this movie, it's going to happen.
-Gotcha. -I'm at the airport.
We're still filming the movie, actually.
We're doing reshoots. And a guy comes up to me.
He's like, "Oh, my God.
You're the guy from 'Soul Plane.'"
And I'm like, "Hey, how you doing, man?"
He's like, "Man, the movie's funny."
And I was like, "Well, you're going to
really think it's funny when it come out."
He's like, "No, it's out. I saw it."
And I was like, "No, you didn't.
You couldn't have seen it, because we're still shooting it.
We're actually shooting it right now."
He was like, "No, I saw it.
I could tell you everything that happened in the movie."
And he starts telling me all the scenes in the movie.
He was like, "Dude, would you mind signing it for me?"
And I said, "Signing what?"
And he pulls the bootleg out of his bag
and he's like, "Sign it."
And I had no choice.
I had to sign it, 'cause it's the first autograph
I've ever really given.
-Yeah. -So I was excited.
And I immediately, like, called the director
and I was like, "Hey, man,
a guy just told me he had the bootleg."
And he's like, "No. No way."
Before we knew it, in like a month,
I was the biggest thing on the streets.
Everybody had this movie, and the movie --
the date that it was supposed to come out,
we had to push it up like a month
because they was like, "We got to just get it out."
So we were trying to lie.
We were like, "There's new scenes
that you haven't seen in the bootleg."
It's was like, "Oh, you think you've seen it.
Well, wait till you see the new stuff."
-So your release was effectively like,
"We're re-releasing 'Soul Plane.'
-We had to re-release based off the bootleg.
We were like, "We know you think you know the end,
but look at what we just added."
So we're, like, cutting together trailers
that aren't even in the movie.
It's, like, me fighting somebody in karate,
like, "Aah, aah!"
It was like, "Wait till you see this
new action scene in 'Soul Plane.'"
And the movie ended up being the biggest hit on the streets
but one of the biggest flops in the box office.
But there is a positive in every negative.
The positive is --
that's how the following for me in comedy started.
I was able to go to comedy clubs,
and they were like, "That's the guy."
-Yeah.
-I was, "That's the guy from 'Soul Plane'" for a long time.
-Hey, thanks so much for being here.