Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Chapter 2: How did Gary Owen cheat his way into Comic View?
Yeah, sure. Come on. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Started pulling up YouTube, showing views. I was like, all right, man, I can't win now. There's nothing worse, though, than like going out and just dudes just overrun your area.
Oh, yeah.
I remember I was in St. Louis and I was on one of them shows. There was like five of us and Tony Rock was on the show. OK. And we went to this party and Tony said, hey, stop by. All right. So I go with two of my buddies. And Tony sections literally got like four guys and four girls at this point. And I come in now it's seven guys. If I said, guys, we got to go, I go, we got to go.
And he's like, what are you talking about? I go, we just messed up the entire odds here. And I looked at all four dudes faces and they didn't have to say nothing. Right. I knew what they was thinking. Like, yo, you just messed up the entire ratio. We don't know who we're trying to talk to. We don't know what's going on. So I was like, yeah, we got to dip. This is not a good look right now.
So Gary, we, um, well, I'm a little older than everybody else in the room, but I remember seeing you for the first time on BET Comic View. Take us back. Cause I know you started in San Diego comedy. Um, you were in the Navy and, um, What was the, what was the, the move like in California? Like, did you fall in love with comedy while you were in California?
Was this something that you always thought about doing? No, I always wanted to do it. Okay. From high school. I was in sixth grade. And the first day of school, I was talking while the gym teacher was talking. And then he goes, you know, he goes, Hey, I'd be quiet. He goes, what are you going to be a comedian or something? And I was like, yeah. And he goes, well, okay. Not my class. Right. Right.
Like he, he, he still tells a story this day of how he was the one, uh, The spark happened in sixth grade with Gary Owen. He goes, he had almost backtracked like, well, not my class. They want to crush my dreams. That's the beginning of juicy for Gary. All the teachers that didn't want me to succeed. But I don't know. I just always knew I was going to do it. I didn't know how.
I lived in a trailer park in Ohio. I didn't know how to even become a stand-up. But I always, and people I grew up with will tell you, I was like, I used to tell people, I'm going to be a stand-up. I'm going to be a stand-up. I don't know how, but I'm going to do it.
But how does that, because you can say it, but then when it's actually time to go to a comedy club or enter a competition, get on stage, like, as somebody that's never done that before, like, how do you prepare for that moment?
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Chapter 3: What challenges did Gary face transitioning from standup to acting?
You know what I mean? I'd be lying. Jim had told me he was working on a movie. That's why he's not here. Yeah, dude. I was like, I was lying. Cause we, you know, we might not be on sense that I might have a spot, you know, South of Figueroa.
Right.
Here's the crazy part. At that time, they were nobody. If any of those military guys was to come back now, they did see Kevin Hart.
They did see Cat Williams. But no one knew who they were back then.
So, in a way, I did expose them to A-list comics. But they weren't at the time. I always lie to my guys because you make that drive, man. Sometimes... You get over a good four, four 30, you're hitting rush hour. You're not getting to LA to seven 38. And you're just grabbing something to eat that you're doing your five, 10 minute spot.
And you're usually hanging out for a little bit afterwards, talking to comics. And then you're driving back. Cause I remember there was a, it was a Kmart in Dana point, which is about halfway from San Diego to LA. And I used to park there and take a nap. Sometimes I couldn't make it. Yeah.
And then, uh, but if I had somebody right with me, you know, we can switch off and then the guys would come back and then I'd tell somebody, they'd tell a few, but he lying. I didn't see nobody. And then I get somebody else that didn't talk to them. No, no, no, no. There's, they're going to be there tonight. Yeah. Tonight is straight up. Yeah. I didn't know the full Navy history.
Now I think about Ohio to the Navy to entertainment. You may be the white Antoine Fisher now that I really think about it.
Now that I think about the entire situation.
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Chapter 4: What was Gary's experience like during his first audition?
He literally like black comics being in the black comedy world. And then mainstream, you have your mainstream friends too, which are mostly white, but now you got Latinos and everything else. But I'm like, boy, the black comics put a lot on that wardrobe. Oh yeah. Gotta look good. I'll be like, Oh, But I think a lot of that is Eddie Murphy, though. Yeah. He did the leather.
I think that kind of set the precedence of when you have your stand up moment, like this is your special. You got to come out here and just look like it has to be a moment. Like as soon as they see you, what are you wearing? The funniest thing was Aziz wearing amazing suits for like a decade. And then they did that bullshit to him. And then he showed up in a hoodie. Yeah. I think I'm cool, man.
I'm not dressing up for y'all anymore. Look what the fuck y'all did to me. Or you got Chappelle just wearing the zip up. Dressed like a painter. Changing the oil on somebody's thing. I mean, Louis C.K. has done the garden for 20 years wearing probably the same black T-shirt. Same exact black T-shirt. I get Louis C.K.
specials mixed up sometimes with clips because he's been wearing the same T-shirt and jeans for every single special. Yeah. I know my last special, the one, Oh and No S, it's funny because I had another one come out eight months ago called Broken Family. Yeah. I got the same outfit on in both specials, by the way, and the same backdrop because it's the same venue.
Well, we shot Friday, and I just remember Friday, Saturday morning, I woke up and I'm having coffee with my manager, and I go, I think I have another hour. We got it last night, right? We're good? Did we check the gate? And she called the guys like, yeah, we're good. And I go, I think I'm going to do a different hour tonight. Let's try it. And then she was like, all right.
Well, I didn't prepare anything.
for another hour as far as wardrobe wise yeah i literally like oh i bought two of the same pair of jeans two of the same pair of shirts and everything because i was like i didn't know yeah so it's funny because i could literally splice two hours together and have a two-hour special basically now that's crazy it's the same everything's the same except i was very much confused when i went to your youtube page of 90 days till the new special and it was the same as
at the old one. So I was like, wait, all right, is this the deluxe album? Like I didn't, I didn't know. I was very confused of the entire thing. Okay. I knew I wasn't, but I was like, maybe it's a different denim shirt for one out of it. Yeah. You know? So where'd you, did you misplace the shirts and jeans? Like you were good to go. No, it was good.
Because you always buy, when you're doing a special, at least I always do, I buy the same outfit because you don't know, you might sweat. Yeah. Something might happen. So you just, you bring an extra. Right. Just in case. So I had bought the same shirt twice and the same jeans twice. So I was just like, oh, all right. What do you think about the tropes that people say?
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Chapter 5: How did Gary's Navy background influence his comedy career?
Great. Um, You write a letter. I wrote a letter of why I should be on it. Then you send a VHS tape. And I said, my buddy worked at this place called good guys. And I sat, he put like literally a hundred TVs behind me. So in my audition tape, you had real production. Everything was timed by a hundred. Yeah. I'm going, hi, I'm Gary. I really want to be on the real world.
They were like, he's on acid. Hey, So then they first they responded to the letter and said, yeah, could you put yourself on tape? So then I put myself on tape. Then I got another letter with a phone number to it. I called the phone number and they said, come up. We'd like to interview you. So I came up and then there was like, God, there was. probably 40, 40 guys in the lobby.
I'm sure there was more, but I went in, did the interview and didn't get on. I just remember the one question they go, in your world, what's the perfect house for the world world? I go, me and six black chicks.
Yeah.
That's probably what didn't give me the part. Me and six black chicks. You are pitching the Chappelle show sketch before the Chappelle show sketch. I remember I said chicks and everything. Me and six black chicks. I looked around and it was all white ladies. I go, oh, this ain't going over. So, this is what I remember about that season. So, of course, I never heard anything after that, right?
They don't tell you no. It's just radio silent. So, when the season started, of course, I'm watching it with vested interest. I want to see who got on. I remember seeing Cyrus. That's the one I remember seeing, right? So, here's what's funny. Cyrus is on there. He likes white girls. I went, ah. The black girl was from Stanford. She didn't agree with interracial dating.
She ended up sleeping with a white dude when they went away on their, remember every year they went away for a week. She slept with a white dude on their little getaway. And I go, I was supposed to sleep with her. I was supposed to sleep with that black girl from Stanford. He just took my kid again.
Yeah.
If you just would have swapped you in, it would have been the same thing. Yeah. Cause that's all she was looking for. It was just, you know, me and Cyrus could have hung out at bars. Yeah. Never stepped on toes. I would have slept with her. Who knows?
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