Anthony Anderson
Appearances
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
So we are at a jazz festival that I believe Stevie is producing in Trinidad. So we get there. Let me back up just because, hold on, let me see if that's Lionel. Oh, that's my mama. She can wait. Doris, give us two. This is another flex. Stevie says, hey, man, why don't you come over here to this jazz festival I'm doing? I'm like, OK, cool. Meet me at the airport. So we get at the airport.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
It's Stevie, Natalie Cole. Oh, Jennifer. Whitney Houston. Oh, my God. Johnny Gill, myself, Gabrielle Union, Derek Luke, a couple of other people. So we're taking off and Stevie says, oh, don't forget, we got to stop in Atlanta and pick up Chris. Like, all right. So we stop in Atlanta. We pick up Chris Tucker. What year is this? This is 15, 20 years ago. Oh, okay.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And so we land in Trinidad, Tobago. This will date it. When did the police get back together as a band for that last tour after not being a band for like 20 some odd years or whatever? Whatever year that was. Okay. I think they've tried it a few times and I think it never works. This was that last big tour that they had. And this was their first show coming together.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
So it was just a regular jazz festival with all these other performers.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Patti LaBelle, Natalie Cole, Johnny Gill, all these people performed. And then the night, we all went in the audience to watch the police. Come on. With Stewart Copeland playing drums.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
The police. But before that, all these other people were performing. Johnny Gill is on stage performing. Chris Tucker and I get on stage and we become his background dancers. And the crowd is packed because they're here to see that on top of the police. So you can just imagine how big this crowd was.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Dougie Fresh grabs the mic. He gets the crowd in the frenzy and all this before somebody else gets on stage. I ended up on stage right. Stage left us over here. And it's a musical stage with huge bands. So just imagine how large the stage is and all the equipment that's on stage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm the furthest away from stage left on stage right.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And Stevie Wonder, I see out of the corner of my eye, starts walking on stage because Stevie Wonder wants to be a part of what's going on on stage. I was like, oh shit, Stevie's about to get down. This motherfucker. walks from stage left through instruments, through chords, through cables, through foot pedals, through everything, walks to me. Now, 150 feet.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Looks me in my eye and says, Anthony, get me to a piano.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Doug E. Fresh is beatboxing. Chris Tucker is dancing. Johnny Gill is singing. There's a party going on stage. They're fucking stagehands and grips. Stevie walks through the maze of everything and walks directly to me and looks me dead in my eyes this close. Well, he's wearing sunglasses though now.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And says, Anthony, get me to a piano. Oh, my God. This is a compelling. And I was like, Steve, you just walked past the fucking piano, but okay. And I walk him to the piano, that center stage that he walked and didn't even touch, walked around. Okay, Monica.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I hear you on that. You know? I'll say that. He's 120 feet away from me. Dude, people are dancing. It's Jamaica. You know how much weed was being smoked in Trinidad and Tobago?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Really? He didn't want to ask Chris Tucker to take him to the piano. He passed him first. He couldn't ask Johnny Gill because Johnny was still singing.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
What's the bill? I got it. Don't worry about it. What's the numbers, y'all? It's not bad, Stevie. But there have been sightings, you know, Shaq tells stories, Eddie Murphy tells stories, how they've seen Stevie Wonder driving cars and shit like that. I've seen Stevie walk through landmines and come to me. Yeah, wow. That is wild.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Look, as I tell the story, it's like, yeah, Eddie and Shaq say they've seen him drive cars. He'd be like, yeah, it's crazy. I saw the man walk through landmines and get to me. So I was like, anything's possible.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
No, motherfucker, you didn't do push-ups before the charity event.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And then... Stevie, I love you. If you're listening to this, because I know you're not watching the podcast, but if you're listening to the podcast. I think he is watching.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
If Stevie could see, he wouldn't have made some of those fashion choices that he's made over the years. Okay, so that's the other.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Oh, it's a combination of all that. You know, I'll start with the latter first. It's not a party or celebrated the way that people were digesting it or enjoying it, but it was my reality.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Hey, what's up, son? Loosen up your rotator cuff. Nathan and I are in the Guinness Book of World Records. I'm in there twice. Twice? And you're in there, what, just one time, son? Only one time. I need more. I don't have any more. Oh, you don't even have any more. That's right.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
So the shit that you saw and the things that people were entertained by, the music, the culture, the movies that were in and about Compton, it was also about these places around the country as well, but it was centered here. It was crazy, man. You know, I wasn't affiliated with any gangs, but you're affiliated by association. You're affiliated because it's the block that you live in.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I was going to say your neighborhood probably plays a big role in shit. They were like, I don't give a fuck. You live on Holly or you live in Ludus Park. You live in these places that were what they were. I come from a blood territory, a blood hood. And the other hood surrounding areas were crypts. Whether or not I was a part of the gang culture, it didn't matter. Right.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
To the other side, that's where you live. Yeah. So that's what you're about. I had to walk through all of that. I went to the high school for the performing arts. Which was at Hollywood High? No, no, no. That's Hollywood High. That's where I graduated. That's where I did my senior year. Oh, okay. Okay. This is the L.A. County. The L.A. County High School for the Performing Arts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I was part of the inaugural class in 1985. I'm actually going back to do their 40-year reunion this year. Oh, cool. Somebody reached out to me and asked me to be a part of it. I never wanted to be a part of the school. Why? Because they kicked me out for having weed. I get why you did it, but you let the white boys with cocaine stay in the school.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I know I'm getting off our topic and I'll get back to it, but I had an issue with the administration. So for the longest time, people that I knew there were students there, I had friends who had kids there. You should come back and talk to the school. And I was like, no. And then one day I woke up and I was like, but that's doing a disservice to the students. Exactly.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Who did nothing to me and would love for somebody like me to be there and be a part of that. Absolutely. So years ago, I decided, OK, whenever they ask me again, I'm there. So I had to be ready for school by 530 because I had to walk a mile and a half to a bus stop. 5.30 in the 80s, shit's popping. Oh yeah, especially in the hoods where I'm from.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Well, because people have been smoking crack all night long.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
They're still buying. All this shit, drive-bys. Nobody schedules a drive-by 3.30 in the afternoon. It's like, yo, we're going to catch him when we catch him. So walking through my hood was fine. But then I had to walk through other neighborhoods. You hear Tupac and them talk about Long Beach and Rosecrans. You hear people rap about that shit. That's my neighborhood. Yeah.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
That's the corner where I had to sit and wait for a bus at 5.50 in the morning. Right across the street are the Santana block crips, diametrically opposed to the Ludus Park Bloods and then the mop. I'm probably speaking French to y'all and all this other shit, but those who know, who are listening, understand. So I had to sit on that bus stop at 5.50 in the morning waiting for a 6 a.m. bus.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
That takes me two hours to get to school. And then I had to reverse it at four o'clock when I got out of school and come home.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I'm sorry. All right. I got to go. I'll holler at you later, man. Oh, wow. Wait, what are your records?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
That's when you get caught. You know, your head is always on a swivel, especially moving alone in areas that are hotspots. I'm always conscious of where I am. That's just the era that I come from and the neighborhoods that I come from.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I hit a golf ball the furthest with the longest usable golf club in the world. 36 feet and one inch was length of the club.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Yeah, it is. It's like when the baby falls into the gorilla cage or somebody gets into the cage, you want to see the motherfuckers get ripped apart. Yeah. I should say when the baby falls in because that's an accident. But when motherfuckers get in and like want to play with the lions and want to play with the monkeys and you know better. Yes, yes, yes.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
It's like, motherfucker, there's a wire cage and there's a brick fence. You climbed all of this. You swam across the moat to get this. You deserve whatever you're about to get right now. And the animal should not be punished. Yeah, exactly. For what is about to happen to you.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And it's fucked up that the animal has to be killed, euthanized and maimed and whatever because of what this asshole did. So sometimes when you see shit like that, you're just like, okay. This is all news to me. You're telling me you've been an ex-addict. I probably knew about that, but I didn't know you smoked crack. Sure, sure. You probably talked about it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Because you said it so freely right now. Without any shame.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Yeah, how old were you when you started smoking crack? And what was that about? How long was the addiction to that?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
No, I was on a podium. Okay. Because you can't stand. The podium wasn't much higher than this table, so I had to stand up on that. I had to rotate. And you can't fucking, 30 fucking six feet long. You can't, ain't none of this shit. No, no, no, no, no. It had to be a control shit and smack the ball. I forget what the record was for distance, but I out drove it. Not that it drove far.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Neither have I. It's heartbreaking, right? It is, man. And now I'm getting so old. Now it's starting to sound like too much work for me. You look at the successes that we've had, you know, in our careers, and then you look at some of the talent that they have come there and host. And you're like, did I upset somebody? Right, right, right, right.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I've never questioned my ability because I know what I can do.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
No, I got the same thing. And that's great. Yeah, they call for my availability, but then they never call back once we sent them the dates. I was like, what the fuck? I was available. I was in the middle of Black-ish. I mean, we're shooting my show. We get 24 episodes a year. We get the call. We're going to tell ABC, yo, we're shutting down for whatever. I'm about to go do SNL.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
While I was doing my first stint on Law & Order. So from 2008 to 2010, they came to Jeremy's sister and I and wanted us to shoot a bit with Zach Galifianakis because he was hosting. So we went and did a Law & Order bit type thing.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Yeah, it aired. I was cool with that, but I was like, yo, you can call me to come be funny and do this shit. But I get what that was.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
They're about to start shooting. Where's the 360 down Long Beach Boulevard? Come on, express bus.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Same mom, same dad. Grew up on a farm. An Irish twin. My Uncle Adel is 11 months older than my dad. My Uncle Adel came out to California. Being an Irish twin, he was tied to the hip. He came out to be where his older brother was. Yeah. And so that's what brought my dad out to California. Ended up working in the steel mill, Soule Steel. Where's that? In Watts. That's not still functional.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
No, it's not still functioning. All the steel went over to Japan years ago. It was crazy. My dad, his company sent him to Japan. And my dad was like 6'4", 300 plus pounds, but he was 300 solid. So just imagine a big butt dude with a jerry curl. Wow. Oh my God.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
It was a couple hundred feet. That's pretty good. I was expecting like 40 feet. Oh, no, no, no. Much longer.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
My dad has pictures of him and all these Japanese women just surrounded him and he's holding up his hand and his lady's hand is like down here just to see the size.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And I know my daddy was over there fucking his ass off. And so he was there for a few weeks, man. I'm surprised he came back.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Again, my father did everything my uncle did. And my uncle started a clothing store in Watts and built it up to a few throughout Los Angeles. I'll never forget. Growing up as a kid, my uncle, he was doing well. And he would walk around with a briefcase and have $15,000 in it. So 50 years ago, 40 years ago, for a black dude to be doing that successful in business.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And this was just the receipts from his stores from that week. Wow. And he would come over to my dad's house and they would talk and, you know, just being in that. It was sit up there. My dad would count the money with him and wanted to do what his older brother did. So my father went downtown L.A. to the garment district. bought a box of Braxton jeans.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I'll never forget 36 pair of jeans and a box. He went to a swap meet on that Saturday, sold out, went back the next day or later on that day, took the profits from his one box and bought two boxes, sold out the next day. So the next week he took that profit and bought more stuff. And so that's how my father started at swap meets. And then on Corners,
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And then he had this one particular corner in Watts in LA that he would go to and set up shop, you know, canopies and tents. It was like an open storefront.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Yeah, popping my shit, my dad popping his shit, making money, getting paid as a teenager. Then from there... my father started opening stores. And when he opened the stores, it was for plus size women because my mom was a plus size. So he was just catering to the women he loved. So it was plus size women in children's clothing. And that's what he did, man. And what did Doris do?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I know she wanted to be an actor. She wanted to be an actor. My mother was a telephone operator for the County of Los Angeles.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Yeah, yeah. And she worked at a hospital, Harbor General UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California. And you had a little brother. Two little brothers and a sister. My sister's the baby. I'm the oldest. I lost my youngest brother about 20 years ago now in a car accident while he was at West Texas A&M College playing football. Oh, yeah, because they're probably huge like your dad. Yeah.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
So we lost him and then a year later lost my dad. So it's three children now, me, my brother Derek and my sister Doris.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
No, I was invited to do it. So if you go to Topgolf right now, They played a video on Topgolf. It's been playing there for years. Because I did it at a Topgolf in Vegas. Okay, great. I forget who invited me or how I got involved with it, but they asked me to come down and do it. And I was like, yeah. So I got a couple of surprises and whacked a motherfucker.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I processed it as best as I could or as best as I knew how. And I don't think I've really processed it as an adult.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Yeah. What year? This was almost 20 years ago. So I was in my 30s. I was successful. Well, good. He saw that. Yeah, I've been successful a while. So he got a chance to see all of that stuff. But you know what? When I go to my therapist, I'm going to talk to my therapist about this. You're giving me something to talk to him about because I don't really think I fully process the death of my father.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Yeah. My dad, it's sad how it happened because I'm a type two diabetic. I was the first person diagnosed with type two diabetes in my family. I started getting healthy and I started partnering with Eli Lilly and now Novo Nordisk, bringing awareness about diabetes to the inner city, in particular black men. They over index, right? Yeah, very much so.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Because I lost my father to complications of diabetes. And what was fucked up, he had diabetes for probably 20, 25 years undiagnosed. Without knowing.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
You're fatigued. Dad's just tired. You know, this is a teenager growing up and all this other shit. He's like, why does dad have a bucket next to the bed? Because he would fucking just roll over and piss in the bucket next to his bed. Yeah, because he's peeing nonstop. Once I was diagnosed as a diabetic, I was like, oh shit, this is what my father had.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
As I was growing up, I'm looking at the symptoms I have and I'm looking at the symptoms he had. It had gotten to a point where, I don't know what it's called, but we say it's elephantitis, where his lower extremities were all fucking one size from the knee down to the ankle and to the foot. And it was swole and was hard as this table.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And then he developed leaking ulcers on the back of both of his calves. Wow. And it became painful for him to walk. So I had to get him a cane and a roller walker. At this point, my father's in his 60s and he just let himself go. So now he's really just a big man. By the time he was diagnosed, diabetes had wreaked havoc on his body. And I took him to the best endocrinologist that I could find.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And then when I hit it and broke the record, they had a fucking marching band come out. Oh, you're kidding. That I had no idea was happening. It was like, he broke the record and his whole marching band, like 50 or 60 people with instruments. Wow.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
We tried to nurse him back to health. And he was in the hospital for a couple of months, had a pulmonary embolism while he was in the hospital. But they were able to catch it and save him, then released him to a rehab center, and then they let him go home. So we had a nurse that would come to him daily. And then one day I went to visit my dad, and my brother, his nickname was Tuga.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
That's my brother that passed. And I was talking to my dad. He was laying in his bed, and I was in his bedroom just leaning up against his dresser speaking to him. And I was like, hey, what's going on, pops? How you doing? He said, I'm all right. He said, I saw Tuga last night. I was like, really? He said, yeah, he just sat on the edge of the bed right there. I said, and what'd you guys do?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Yeah, right, right, right. I believe in ghosts and all that. So when he was telling me my brother came to visit him, I was like, oh, okay, it's time. And not long after that, man, he died on Valentine's Day. I was going to work. I was filming The Shield. And I got a call in the middle of the night from his nurse and said, we lost your dad. Oh, man. And, uh...
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Yeah, that's why I'm so adamant about going around the world and just talking about diabetes and giving my testimonial and just talking to men. I know I got it from being a glutton and from not eating the right shit and for doing all this other shit that I did throughout my life that contributed to it. I'll say that much.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
You know what's crazy? I was living in New Orleans for a while, shooting a show there. That place will give you gout. Yeah, I was like, I'm going to be healthy. Not the place. I was eating nothing but seafood and shellfish. I was like, oh, I'm just eating seafood and shellfish. But all the purine in the shellfish contributed to my buildup of uric acid.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And I'll never forget, I was in the scene and I went to kick a door in. And I hit it and I was like, ow, I think I broke my toe. And I finished the scene. Then we moved locations. We were filming in a hotel in the middle of the night and I was laying across the bed and they said, action. And I jumped up to run and chase the perp and I put pressure on my right foot and I collapsed.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And I was like, oh yeah, I broke my toe. I went to the doctor the next day, limping in. They were like, what's wrong, Mr. Anderson? I was like, I kicked the door and I think I broke my toe. They're looking at it like, I don't think you broke your toe. I said, yeah, no, I think I broke my toe. They're like, you might have the gout. I was like, no, I ain't got the gout. That's not for me.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I was like, Dr. Kotler, let's go on an x-ray. They humored me. I was like, okay, Mr. Anderson. Took me an x-ray, they should. Came back 30 minutes later and said, okay, we got good news and bad news. Which one do you want first? I was like, the good news. All right, you didn't break your toe. I was like, what's the bad news? You got the gout. Oh, I was like, you motherfucker.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
If you look at it, it looks red hot. And so if you put your hand above it, you can feel the heat coming off of it. Now I think about it. I was like, well, it is uric acid. You associate acid with being hot. That's just my little way of thinking about things. But if you hover your hand above wherever you may have the gout, it's radiating heat up off of it and it's bright red and it hurts like hell.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And are you loving D.C.? Loving D.C. is Chocolate City. It was at the beginning of gentrification. And at 17, 18 years old, I didn't really understand or know what gentrification was, even though I was at the beginning of it in Washington, D.C. The Washington Wizards, their basketball team, used to be called the Washington Bullets.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
but because it was the murder capital of the world at one particular time in the 80s. And they had been the Washington Bullets forever.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
So they were like, maybe we need to change the name of the team.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Washington Murderers. Yeah, right. So they changed the name from the Washington Bullets to the Washington Wizards. Just a little something for you.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
After that, I felt compelled to make a show. Once the marching band came out? After the record. After I did it and they did all this shit. And then my son, as you heard on the call, Nathan was in the Guinness book of world records for putting on the most t-shirts in 30 seconds. They had a Guinness book come up to a school and I don't know what the record was, but my son beat it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
So I left Howard... At 20. Those five years is long, right? Yeah, I came home, especially with nothing. My parents ended up getting separated a few years after I came home. I moved in with my mom, went to a couple of community colleges just because I wanted to keep my mind active. I was like, I'm going back to Howard. I just want to sit here and fuck off. So let me go to some JC's.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I went to El Camino Community College and I went to Compton College for a semester each. And I was like, yeah, I just want to keep my mind active. And I want to pick up some classes that's going to transfer. when I go back for my senior year. That shit never happened. Well, until 2020. When did you go back? 2022 is when I went back.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Yeah, my son got accepted to Howard University in 2018. When I went to college, I would have been the first person to graduate in my family from college. So that's why I was like, no, I got to go back and fucking finish. Then I started having kids. And then my younger cousins, 10, 15 years younger than me, they started going to college and graduating. I was like, fuck, I wanted to be the first.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
My daughter went to the University of San Diego, graduated magna cum laude. I was like, oh, fuck, now she's slapping me in the face with this shit. Then my son gets accepted to Howard. His mother and I met at Howard. In 1989. Yeah. So you're a double legacy kid. You got to go to Howard. And I was like, you know what, son? You're inspiring me to go back to school.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I'm going to walk with you in 2022. That gives me four years to make up 15 credits. So I was like, I can do that shit. And so he goes, real life gets in his way. He's a young artist, actor, musician, rapper, and he wants to pursue his dream. And my son would always tell me, he was like, you dropped out of college and look at you. I was like, first off, motherfucker, I didn't drop out of college.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I didn't just wake up one morning like you did and be like, fuck it, I'm dropping out. My dad got me.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
There are consequences that comes with these choices that you were about to make. And I'm telling you right now, you about to fuck it up. Yeah. But he left after his freshman year. But I kept my promise to him. I kept my promise to myself. And I walked in 2022. That's so cool.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Taraji Henson was our commencement speaker the year I received my degree. Taraji and I were classmates in the College of Fine Arts back when I was in school. Denise Saunders, who was the associate dean of the College of Fine Arts, was instrumental in helping me get back into school. She and I were classmates when I was at Howard University.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Felicia Rashad is now the dean of the College of Fine Arts. And this is her last year as dean of the College of Fine Arts. She and I are friends and have done things together. I received my degree from her. And the College of Fine Arts is no longer called the College of Fine Arts. That year, for the first time, it's now called the Chadwick A. Bozeman College of Fine Arts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And Chadwick and I are contemporaries and friends in this industry. All of that happened the year that I went back to get my degree. And it was just a full circle moment. And I took my best friend, who's my kid's godfather, Skinny Boy, who I went to high school with. We ended up at Howard together at the same time as freshmen. So it was a full circle moment.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I went back to get my degree with the guy I started college with, with all of these people that I started college with.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Yes. We've both hosted Kimmel and you've done it a lot. How many times have you done it? I think I have the record for most appearances on Jimmy Kimmel. If I haven't passed Adam Carolla yet, I am a close second to him. God, I feel like I got to be up there too.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
No, there's a lot. Like every summer when Jimmy takes off, I host for a week. But what's crazy, he used to have co-hosts on his show with him back in the day. That's right. So you would come on and co-host with him. I was the last co-host that he had. Mike Tyson was before me. Uh-huh. And then I came on and then I would come sit in for him.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And then whenever he needed a bit or something, he always would call me and I call my mom. So it would be me and my mom on there.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
The t-shirts would have to be getting progressively larger. You start at small and go to large. Maybe they stay the same size. And that's part of the thing. Because it's getting bigger, but the shirt is still staying the same size. That's an added layer. You're getting thicker. Yeah.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Those are cool. And I get to do them with my mom. So that's cool. But I would probably say Kimmel because I've always wanted my own talk show. So I enjoy it from top to bottom. It's like me directing when I was directing on Black-ish. It was like, okay, I don't know how to direct, but my crew is not going to let me fail my very first episode. Right.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
So, you know, this is a safe place for me to do it. It's a great place. So Kimmel is home for me. He's a great talk show host, but he's a fucking great friend. Oh, my God.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
He's the best boy on planet Earth. Best thing I would say is Kimmel. And right after that, hosting the Emmys. You loved it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Like when I used to be nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Every year I go and I think, ah, shit, this is the year. And I was like, ah. And then one year I was like, oh, this is it. Oh, no, I showed my ass in this. This was it. And I get there. I didn't look at who the other nominees were. So I was just like, I don't give a fuck who's nominated.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I get there and I look at my category and I was like, Denzel Washington. Oopsie.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And the winner is, for best lead actor in the movie, Denzel Whitehall.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Like he called me up one day, Thanksgiving. He was like, yo, Ant, you got any aluminum foil?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Stretchiest. Yeah. That I don't know. But the thing with Nathan's record... is it wasn't published. Not all Guinness Book of World Records are published in the book. You get a certificate and it says, say you broke this record, this is your record. So that's what he has. One of my records is published in the book. The Golf Swing Club is published in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I was like, I'm in Qatar right now. But yo, I can give you the code to my back door. Cool. So I was like, yo, I'll give you the code to my back door, man. It's in the drawer right next to you. He said, nah, that's all right, man.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I owe him a sweet potato pie, by the way. He always calls me about the sweet potato pie because he knows I bake.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
The brand Jordan would ask me to come do their corporate things for their athletes that wear brand Jordan. Like he would do a corporate retreat with just his elite athletes who wear his stuff. Oh, so fun. And I would be there as the host. As a world record holder. Yeah. I would just be there as a host and having fun. And all we would do was play golf and he would have competitions.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
He would set us up in different groups. They could be eight or nine groups with 10 athletes per group. And it was like, yo, I want you guys to create a new shoe and tell us what you think it is. And whatever group wins, we'll get a pair of Jordans from Jordan one, all the way up to whatever year we're at that, at that time, every single pair,
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
want oh my god see I wore these just for you yeah there you go I got those too so my team fucking lost but at that time it was like 30 pair of J's that you could get in your colorway that's 15,000 bucks or 30,000 bucks worth of shoes yeah so we've become cool but what really made us cool they opened the Cove Hotel in the Bahamas at Atlantis yeah so this was 20 years ago 17 years ago something like that so they had a big grand opening
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And MJ is sitting there. We're in a restaurant. Stevie Wonder's birthday. All kinds of celebrities there because it's a huge opening. We're in Bobby Flay's restaurant. And so I walk over to MJ. I was like, oh, shit, there's MJ. And I've never met him before. I was like, I got to talk to him. So I'm talking to my ex-wife. I'm like, hey, babe, I'm going to go talk to MJ. So I'll go see MJ.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And I say, hey, MJ. Hey, man, just want to say it's a pleasure to meet you. And I was like, I hear you're a domino player. and I brought your dominoes with me. I have this red pair of aluminum Jumpman dominoes that I got at NBA All-Star in Vegas from a brand Jordan party. And he looked at me, he said, did I give you those motherfuckers? I said, no, you didn't.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And he was like, how did you get them? I said, well, I consider myself to be the MJ of bones, but that's beside the point. I'd like to play with you. And he turns to my ex-wife and says, Okay, look here, ma'am. I suggest you go to the bank and take out as much money as you can. Because once I whip his ass, he won't have enough money to take care of you and your children. You're smart.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
You ensnared him in competition. Yeah, and she's like, I'm not going to let him play you for money. But this is what he'd do. And he was like, meet me at the cabana tomorrow at noon.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I was like, all right. This is crazy. So I'm swimming in the ocean with Patrick Ewing.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
This is wild. My ex-wife comes running up to me. Baby, baby. I was like, what? She said, MJ's at the cabana. I was like, yo, Pat, I got to go. So I get out, dry off. I run upstairs. I grab the dominoes. And before I leave, I see a camera sitting on the table. And I said, babe, grab the camera. I got to take a picture. So she grabbed the camera. This is my first time meeting MJ.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Were they doing that in Compton? When you were a kid, were you just studying that?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And I'm hanging with him. So we get to the cabana. It's Ahmad Rashad, MJ, and then MJ brought somebody to play dominoes with us, right? A ringer? Yes. And so we're there. Ahmad's not playing. Ahmad's just sitting there with his legs crossed, just looking at us. We're talking shit and having fun. And I'm just timid. I'm not talking shit. I'm just enamored with MJ. And he's beating me.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
You saw a black dude with a golf club in Compton, you went the other way.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I rarely lose in dominoes. And he's beating me, but I don't give a fuck that he's beating me. I'm like, he's on the back of my dominoes like this.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
You want to look at the list of people who have lost to Michael Jordan?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
What a moment. Even better, a list of people who've beaten Michael Jordan. So... I'm playing with him and he's talking shit. And my wife looks at me and says, yo, you just going to let him keep talking shit to you like that? And I was like, shit. But he says something that gets me razzled, razzled. I was like, fuck this. I'm going to stop playing timid. I get domino. We're playing to 150.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Jordan has 125. His buddy has 75. I have 45. And I get the domino and I look at him and I was like, yo, MJ, I said, this is going to be the hardest 25 points you ever had to score in your life. Just know that.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Now I'm out of my shell. Now I'm like, yo, fuck this. I ain't going to have this motherfucker whoop my ass. I played domino. Now I'm talking shit. I'm talking cash shit to this motherfucker. And he's giving it back. You send your wife to get money out of the bag. A modest libel. I'm like, yo, baby, go get the money. Go get the money. I'm feeling it. Money's on. My mom is laughing.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Fucking MJ is talking shit. And then we're sitting there and boom, I say some shit and I win. Right? He's like, run it back. I was like, okay, motherfucker, let's go. So now we're running it back. Now I'm talking shit from the beginning. Now I'm in my element and I'm boom, boom, boom, talking shit about him, his mama, his daddy, his kids, all this shit.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Oh, no, that was one of the books that, as a kid, you just went through.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And then I'm whipping his ass and I'm whipping this motherfucker's ass. And then I was like, yo, I wish me and my wife could make babies right now because we would go upstairs and make a baby right now and we would name him or her MJ. Just so when he or she got older, she could say, Daddy, why did you name me MJ? And I could relive this moment right now. Bam! Damn it, motherfucker! Won the game.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
His security comes out of the cabana. There's a DJ on the pool. The DJ scratches the record, stops the music. The fucking hotel security comes out. The people that are swimming in it. Because it's the opening. It's the grand opening of this huge fucking hotel in the Bahamas. Everybody stops and turns towards us. Don't worry. I just whipped Michael Jordan's ass in dominoes. He all right, though.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Oh, wow. And I try to have my lady take pictures of it. The motherfucker refuses to take pictures with me. Now, I have to find these pictures because I have pictures of this motherfucker just looking.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Just like this. And me sitting there smiling. But he refused to take pictures with me. And then we're on this island for the next three days for the celebration of the opening of this hotel. So there are dinners. There's parties. There's everything that we're going to. There's golf. We're taking group pictures. Every group picture we take, he kicks me out of. Oh! He's so mad at you.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
If there's any human that hates losing, I happily would leave the picture just so I could share the story as to why MJ is asking me to get out of the photo. Yeah, it's wonderful. It's the dream. I called radio stations. I talked about this on the news. I talked about it on talk shows. I was surprised you weren't in Last Dance telling this story.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I talk about all this other shit because nobody can really, only a few people. Hold on, is it Lionel? Nope, it's not Lionel. Only a few people can say they beat Jordan one on one or whatever the fuck it is. I can say that. And we laugh about it to this day.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
MJ, I love you, man. And I know people who listen are going to tell you this story. I didn't bring this shit up. They brought it up. But I'm going to talk about it every chance I get.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
She's an EGOT. Is she an EGOT? She is an EGOT. Oh, you're right. She deserves to be. A lot of people say she has an EGOT. I was like, no, she doesn't have an EGOT. She is an EGOT. There's a difference. Had you known her before this movie? I had known her before. We lived near each other. Hold on. I must not lie.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
we've always had an admiration for one another and ABC together, you know, their show and my show. So I just always had love for her and she always had love for me. And I get a call, Hey, Viola wants you as her husband, not come read this, come do this. I had a meeting with the director and the director was like, I've never cast a movie like this before.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I've never had someone tell me that this is who they want. This is my husband. Yeah. I was like, wow.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
We have a table read because we shoot this entirely in Cape Town for six months. And I was like, who the fuck is this dude with this Australian accent or this New Zealand accent? I was like, I kind of like him. He's cool. And we shoot the movie. He kicks my ass. I kick his ass. I'm home nine months later.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I'm doing some ADR and our director, Patricia, it was like, yeah, Anthony, the movie's looking great. We got this great buzz from Tony and his show. I was like, what show's Tony on though? First off, when we were doing scenes together, she would say Anthony, and we would all turn to her and be like, huh? Right, right. And she'd say, oh, let me do this. I'll call you by your name, Anthony Starr.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Me and Darius Rucker. I was shooting a show and we were doing something and we were attempting two other records. We're trying to break a record of building this sandwich. We didn't get that one. And the other one was Most Hugs. Oh, I love that. So we broke the record for most hugs in a minute. It was just some simple stuff. You just had to tap your hand, embrace and release.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And so every time she would say Anthony Starr, I would say, huh? Because you're a star. I'm a star, and I'm Anthony, and I have no idea who the other Southern motherfucker is. So I was like, she's talking to me. And she didn't notice his name. I was like, oh, my bad. So that still became my running joke. So she was like, yeah, Anthony Starr, you know, he has a show with the boys.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I was like, who the fuck is he on the boys? I watch the boys all the time. I was just watching it before I came here. He's Superman. I was like, get the fuck out of here. Because he just looks so different. We were doing press all day yesterday. I told him, I would say, hey, Tony, I had no idea you were who the fuck you were. Homelander.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I said, I had no idea who the fuck you were when we were working together. Even though you're a fan of the boys. Yes.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And he was like, what? I was like, dog, when I watch you on the boys, you're seven feet tall to me, motherfucker. Yeah. You're a fucking superhero. I was like, the way you are on that motherfucking show, it's not you. Right. That's not who I work with. Yeah. And he was like, yeah, man.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
It's like when I saw Fela. on Broadway and I went backstage to meet the cast and I was looking for the dude that played Fela and I forget his name, but I'm talking to him. And as I'm talking to him, I keep looking behind him and looking around, trying to find a dude before he leaves and shit. And then I realized it's him. And then when I left, I was like, oh my God. Yeah.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Because he was a small, demure dude. But as Fela on stage, this motherfucker was larger than the fucking theater that they were in on Broadway. But when I went to meet him, he's just a regular dude. And I was like, this motherfucker's phenomenal. Yeah. He's a magician. That's how I feel about Anthony Starks as motherfucking Homelander on The Boys.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Viola and I are ex-military and it's a big action film. You know, terrorists take over the G20 global summit that we're at. We end up kicking ass and getting our ass kicked throughout the film. She's doing a ton of ass kicking. Wait till you see it. You're going to be like, God damn.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I'm going to call again. Hold on. Let's see. Let's see if Lionel Richie's going to pick up. He never picks up the phone, though. He's earned the right not to pick up the phone. I've only spoken to him on the phone maybe twice in all these years. All the years that I've met him. You had the third time to be online. But I know where he lives. I know where he works.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
This motherfucker saw this call and sent me the voicemail. It only rang three times. Oh. It only rang three times. He might be in the middle. Hey, man, you better be shooting the voice right now, Lionel Richie. I'm still doing this podcast two and a half hours later. I don't know how the hell Dax Chepra got me to fucking do this podcast for two and a half hours.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
It was only supposed to be for 40 minutes. But we're still trying to reach you. And we're not going to end this interview until we talk to you. Lionel, please call me back and not let me out of the room until you call back. I love you, Lionel. Well, we've done all we can.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Yeah, see what happens. I did that with Oprah on Jimmy's show once.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
No. We can't. I don't want you to be wasting my calls.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
There are only a certain amount of calls people like that pick up from you.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And Darius and I have that record. I bet that looked crazy. It did. And we did that in the park. Yeah. We attempted three, but we got the record for most hugs in a minute. That one isn't published in the book. Okay. Probably homophobia.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
We should have been in the record anyway for just most hugs completed by two black men.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Or a black man and a black-ish man. You know, take your pick on which one is which. I love this. You guys can see it straight into the interview. I thought we were just having a conversation. Oh, yeah. Now we're always recording. Who is just like, wow, I love it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
This guy's picking them up. I started to tell you I was trying to develop a show. What I wanted to do... was take my son, since we're both Guinness Book World Record holders. Competitors. And try to break as many records as we can as father-son. I wanted to enter the book that way, but there's some guys in there and one father-son, they pull fucking fire trucks. Ooh. Me and my son can't do that.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
They need to know, we just weren't flying Southwest. That's a good look for you.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
When I see a white kid driving a Lamborghini, I'm like, come on. Yeah, I mean, but it's a flex that we could all use, man. It's not JetBlue. Yeah. Or the other one.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
$225, man. Anytime you can leave Vegas with their money, that's a win. That's a big win.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Would you have been like, not this table. We were just there for fun. So it would have been fun for us. So we would have been paying in Gen Pop. We would have been paying at the little $10, $25 table. I can't go lower than $25.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I would sit at the $25 table and we would have had a great time. When you're putting a quarter out there every time you bet, you know, it's like, I got to play this right. So yeah, we would have had great time.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Yes. Power of love. Good memory. I've done it twice before. Once was for Smokey Robinson. Oh, he was honored. And honored Lionel Richie.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
The last child leaves the house. On average, parents get happier, don't they? The best data suggests happiness increases when the kids leave home and the dog dies. You go to some parents and you go, do children make you happy? And parents will say, oh, of course they do. They make me happier than anything else.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
We know from tons of data that those parents are wrong, that children in fact have a small but negative impact on the happiness of their parents. their parents don't know it. Those data tell you something about parenthood and happiness. There may be many reasons to have children, but making yourself more happy in the moment is not one of them.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
So he just happened to be wandering down the aisle and stopped at you and Kristen and said, hi, I'm Lionel, not Lionel.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Are you friends with him? I am Lionel's cool. So Lionel, if you're listening to this podcast, which I know you're probably not, but by a chance, if you are, I'm still waiting on my dinner at your house. I've gone through two girlfriends and a marriage of 23 years. And I have yet to be at the dinner at your home that you've invited me and my wife and two of my girlfriends to.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
When I play golf at L.A. Country Club as a guest, not as a member. Okay. You can see Lionel's house from the fourth hole, fifth hole, something like that. So every time I go by the house, I hit a ball in the backyard. Motherfucker, I want my dinner. But to see his home, just see the backyard. It's in layers. Oh, good for him. It's in at least three different layers, but I want to count four.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
It's terrace. Yes, but not just the width of this table. I'm talking about park-like terraces, cascades down. I was like, God damn, Lionel.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
This is your life. And I hear that he has, I don't know how true this is. I started talking to him about it one day, but we never finished the conversation. He built a room in his home to replicate the room that he originally wrote his music in. He was at Tuskegee and all that.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
The early days of the Commodores where he wrote the music and old record players and records and shit that was around him in that space when he was being a creator.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Yeah, I started talking to him about that. He started to give the answer and then something happened and we both got distracted. But, you know, I'm going to call him.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I would love it. Let's call Lionel Richie right now. Ask him what his best song is. Okay. If he picks up. He never picks up. But he always responds to a text message. Lionel, please pick up. We need you. Oh, it's the third ring. He's not picking up.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Hey Lionel, it's Anthony Anderson. I'm here with Dax Shepard and Monica. I'm doing a podcast and I was hoping that you would pick up the phone because we're here talking about you. You met Dax on a plane with his wife, Kristen, and you walked up and said, hi, I'm Lionel Richie. Dax said, Very memorable. He knows what your favorite song was. And it was, this is your life.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Is this is your life really your favorite song or is that what you just told him? And secondly, I was telling him that word on the street is that you have a replica room of when you wrote your greatest hits when you were younger at Tuskegee and all of that. And I told him how we were starting this conversation and I asked that question and then we got distracted. So you never answered it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
So please call me back and answer it. And I promise to put you on the air. And invite our friend in to dinner. And the dinner that you promised me and my ex-wife, me and my ex-girlfriend, and me and my ex-ex-girlfriend. That's three relationships that I've gone through still waiting on dinner, Lionel. Call me back. Bye. Oh, if he calls back in the middle of this. Oh, make sure your ringer's on.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I'm going to send him a text that says, call me. I tell him I've been in a bad accident.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Not to mention any names. If you saw the doc, you really know how horrible some of them sounded. Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
I've known Stevie for years. Okay. Okay. I've hung out with Stevie. We've partied together, just in concerts. What if you said play darts together? No, no. This is a little thing that we would always do every time we saw each other. Stevie would be talking to you, and the next thing you know, he'd grab you and slit your throat. Like, how did he know where my throat was? You know what I'm saying?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
So he'd take his finger like he had a blade and slit your throat, and he's like, I got you, motherfucker. I was like, okay. That's cool. You're in close proximity. You're talking to somebody. You get their height. You've been around them a while. That's cool.