-Welcome back to the show. -Thank you, man.
Thanks for having me. I love your show, man.
And, uh, yeah, man. Congratulations
-on season two of The Masked Singer. -Yeah.
I feel like you have hosted every major,
like, show now in Amer...
Are you just, like, the guy that they call?
Are you just the first name on the list?
I'm the friendly black guy other than you.
(laughter, applause, cheering)
No, but, I mean, like, you-you see, that's the thing.
You even joke about it, but, like,
-you are extremely successful, man. -Yeah. Thank you.
I mean, like, we're having you on the show today,
and today, I read the news about how you are going
to launch a syndicated talk show around the country,
like a daytime talk show. Nick Cannon is doing that.
-Yeah. I'm having... The Nick Cannon Show. -That's amazing.
(applause and cheering)
Uh, I mean, honestly, man, uh, I've been inspired
by people like yourself,
and to Wendy Williams, to Ellen, and I felt like...
I... You know, once I left America's Got Talent,
I was like, "Yo, I want to elevate in a way
"to where I can actually use my voice for good
-and kind of affect culture." -Right.
So I started developing a late-night show.
I was gonna be your competition. I didn't want that smoke, so...
So I said daytime it, you know, I kind of filled in
for Wendy a couple of times, I was like:
-Yo, I could see this working. -You did a great job, yeah.
Thank you, man. I appreciate that.
So now you're gonna see me each and every day.
You start with me and you end with Trevor. There it is.
(cheering, applause)
What I... what I've loved about your journey
is that you-you've dabbled in a little bit of everything,
and you've been successful. Wild 'N Out has been going
-season after season after season. -Thank you.
-Will you go on that? -I'll be there if you'll have me.
There's an arena tour that goes around the country.
-Yeah. -You know, you've got your music,
and then, of course, people know you now on Power 106,
-Yeah. -where you're on the radio.
-Absolutely. -Right? So you're doing that
every single day on the radio, but, then, at the same time,
-as your hoodie tell us... -Go to school.
-I'm in college. -you go to school.
-(cheering, applause) -But this is real.
-Real. This is the real deal, yeah. -What are you...
-what are you studying now? -Since 2016,
uh, I've been getting my undergrad in criminology,
and I walk in May, I graduate, and then...
-(cheering, applause) -So...
undergrad in criminology, working on my masters already,
uh, in psychology, and then, hopefully,
all the way to the doctorate, to the PhD and all of that.
(cheering, applause)
I mean, most people think of school as an avenue
that gets you to the place where you can make money.
Nick Cannon's already making money.
-Why go to school? -Yeah, well, I mean...
You going for that sweet college debt?
-Is that what you're looking for? -(laughter)
You know, uh, all of that Sallie Mae,
all them good things. Uh, no.
But honestly, and it sounds cliché,
uh, one...
I learned that education is true wealth.
And in that sense of being a father,
I wanted to be an example,
because my kids are spoiled little brats.
-(laughter) -But they...
if I can be an example to them, to say like,
"Yo, you can have all the material things,
"but all that stuff can be taken away from you.
They can never take your education away."
-(applause) -And... and...
as I've learned through this journey,
going to a HBCU and learning so much about myself,
and, I mean, Nelson Mandela said it the best--
I mean, education is the most powerful weapon one can use
to change the world.
And so I'm just trying to do my part, man.
-(applause) -You...
you-you've definitely...
you've definitely started on a journey
that people have noticed, myself included,
where Nick Cannon's message has changed from just jokes
to now being jokes and also informing people
about, as you say, the culture.
You... you've become very pro, you know, spreading a message
of inclusivity, you've become pro-education
and history and information,
black people in America, black people as they tie to Africa.
-You know, just disenfranchised people around the world. -Right.
Like, what-what is... what is that about?
Like, what do you hope to achieve
in and around, like, just the black community in America?
I mean, honestly, uh, I just wanted to be more than just a...
a celebrity out here talking and saying.
I wanted to really dig in, and that's why criminology
was so important to me, 'cause each and every week
I go into, uh, prisons and facilities of incarceration.
-Right. -And now, even though I'm studying...
studying the mind of, like, the...
what would make a society rally around the idea
-of imprisonment, you know? -Right.
Even those concepts of, like, all right,
we got to go all the way to the root of the issue
and say, as-as humanity, how do we get...
how do we fix this thing and get back together
on just a human level?
Let's fix it at the root of the issue,
and then we can get to every other issue
and not be divided but be as one.
-When you... -(applause)
I like that message.
Yeah, we was gettin' deep for a second.
No, but wait, when you... Here-here's...
here's one thing I always wonder about you as Nick Cannon.
People see you on Wild 'N Out, we'll see you on TV shows.
-Right. -You're not afraid to-to take the joke.
You're not afraid to turn it on yourself.
-Yeah. -You're not afraid to make fun of yourself.
You know, some people think you're cheesy, but, like...
Cheesy, corny, caramel-y, all that.
-(laughter) -But... but I think there's...
it's, like, part of your game as Nick Cannon,
where you-you've realized that you can get a lot further
when people don't see you coming
-than if they perceive you as a threat. -Shh.
Don't tell them my secret, Trevor.
-(laughter) -I feel... you... honestly,
it really is, it goes back, us being comedians,
you know the power of self-deprecating humor.
-Right. -Uh, and it really, it puts the audience at ease.
It puts everybody on an even playing field.
And then when you really get to that place, when you understand,
humor is really where the healing occurs.
When you can see something and actually step back
and laugh at it, and you can laugh at yourself,
laugh at your insecurities...
We all have them, we all have differences,
and it shouldn't be, "Oh, we're afraid to talk about them."
But, like, nah, "Shoot, I know I got pencil legs. So what?
I'm... I'm out here rocking these pencil legs."
-Like.... uh... -(laughter)
and then when you can do that, then you can get
to the real issues at hand, and everything from mental health
to bullying, all these things that are real issues
that people are afraid to deal with,
-Right. -we can deal with them on a human level,
and that's all I'm trying to get to.
That's what I love, men, it's a full spectrum of everything.
It's pencil legs all the way through to a PhD.
Thank you so much for being on the show.
-Pencil Legs Cannon! -The Masked Singer airs
Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. on Fox.
Nick Cannon, everybody.