Somebody will pull it up. Hello and welcome to everyone joining us via live stream. I'm Dr. Roderick Richmond, interim superintendent of Memphis Shelby County Schools and I'm thrilled to have you with us today for a very special event. Here in our district, we believe that laughter is
good for the soul and for education. Comedy is more than just entertainment. It's an art form. And as many of you know, art is one of my five A's, a pillar of our commitment to a well-rounded, enriching education for every student. Some of Memphis's most
talented and humorous individuals have walked the very halls of our schools. That legacy of creativity and expression is something we're proud of and something we're determined to grow. Our goal is to teach the craft in the business of entertainment. In short,
we're here to educate and enlighten through the power of laughter. A huge thank you to our special guests today for sharing their time, talent, and expertise with our students and our community. You all are in for a real
treat. So, sit back, relax, enjoy, and get those questions ready. Greatness grows here. Good afternoon everybody. My name is N Boyce. I am a rising senior at Southwind High School. I am also a part of the
wonder mentorship program called Project Stand with MSCS where we strive to make sure students are great in the future and are ready for postsecary. Today I am here with Mr. Roy Wood Jr. I'm going to be interviewing him and
asking him a couple of questions. Just in case you didn't know, Mr. Roywood Jr. is a beloved comedian, father, and actress. So, first, Mr. Roy, tell us a little bit about yourself. You know, I started out being inspired
by Ricky Smiley. You know, he was the comedian I looked up to growing up and, you know, he was doing comedy and because he was from where I'm from, then it made me feel like that I had a shot at doing it, too. Like, you know, I wasn't that good at sports growing up. I was all right, but I usually rode the
bench. I didn't play often. So, it gave me a lot of time to crack jokes and act food. Um, I went to college and um, I ended up studying, you know, journalism at Florida&M University and um, I got in trouble. I got in trouble while I was in
college uh, for stealing credit cards when I was 19 and got myself on probation. And so like to got sent to should have been sent to prison if we gonna be 100 about it. Uh, luckooked up. I had some praying
grandmama so jail never happened for me. Uh, but during that time on probation is when I started really getting right, getting focused, and getting dialed in. And I've been doing standup comedy since 1998, when I was 19 years old. It's been a blessing. That's wonderful. Now, you have
mentioned in a number of interviews how getting suspended from Florida&M changed your life trajectory? Yeah, cuz I got sus when I got arrested, they suspended me. Yeah, I forgot to add that part. Yeah, you you just get to come back to school on probation. Yeah. Go sit go sit down somewhere for a
minute. Yes, sir. I understand. So, will you take some time to kind of explain how you use that to invest in your future?
Um, for me, so when you get suspended from college, it's a little different from high school where like, well, no, you know, it's kind of the same. you can't come on the campus. But in college, you can still kick it with your friends off campus, which I guess you could still do in high school. But for
me, I didn't really have no friends because once you get arrested, don't nobody want to hang with you no more. Don't nobody want to be around you no more. And so for me, I was very lonely. And what I discovered at that time was that when I started doing open mic comedy, and so for the people who don't
know, every city got a little local comedy club. And once a week they have a night where anybody who think they funny can come on stage and we'll give you three minutes, five minutes, whatever to try whatever you want to say to them. And so after doing open mics around
Tallahassee, I was taking the bus up to Atlanta and doing um comedy in Atlanta. Same game in Birmingham. I started meeting people that was that wanted something. They was chasing something. They was after something. And I realized
that I I don't think I ever really had that in college. Low-key, I don't think I really had that in high school. So, if you got a dream or you got something you really want to do, you need to be around other people that's dreaming and protect your dream because it's going to be a lot of haters who scared of chasing
their own dream or who ain't got a dream who gonna try and step on yours. And you got to get them people out your life. For me, getting suspended low key is what got all of those people out of my life because most stuff at that time at FMU, everything was happening on campus.
All the parties were on campus. You hung out on campus. So, I legally can't come on campus because I'm suspended. So, I just wasn't around folks like I used to. So, I found a new group of people. And the group of people that I found were much more driven and focused on their
goals and where they wanted to be in life. That's a very good intake from that. I will say that. But I want to ask you cuz you did mention that every city kind of has its local comedy club, right, where
you can come and get your time to talk and be funny. So, I want to ask you, when did you first realize you were funny? And what do you remember about that moment? I mean, but it's it's kind of two
different things. You know, you funny right now in class. You know, if you crack a joke, whether or not somebody else gonna laugh. You know, when you start premeditating what you going to do today or what you going to say or what face you going to make at a girl or your homeboy or whatever that's going to make
them kind of giggle or whatever. For me, it was the school bus in middle school cuz you know the school bus is straight jokes. We sitting here for an hour. It's hot. The windows don't half go down. We uncomfortable. We on here playing spades
and playing tunk and just acting a fool. And I think I was funny then, but for sure when I played baseball in high school, cuz I wrote the bench and I would help heckle the other teams, that's when I knew I was like, "Oh, if I can get the umpire to laugh or I can get
one of these other one of these other parents in the stands to laugh, then you know you got a good joke." So that was like being funny is one thing, but like going I think I could stand on stage in top of stra in front of strangers and do
this. It was high school, but even then it would still be another four or five years before I even dared to try and do it. It just it took a lot. Wow. So really what what did it for you was just
just doing it. So you just got out there and did it. You got to look at it like this. When you fail, most of those people you'll never see again. Especially if we're just talking performing. All right?
And if you fail in high school in front of your classmates, all right, you got to see them again. They may even tease you a little bit, but I guarantee you at the end of the day, you're gonna be in a better position than they are because you're trying right now. You know, I don't know how many people
you all love and respect or laugh at. Dave Chappelle started doing comedy when he was 14 years old. Ary Spears started Ary Spears was on HBO Def Come Comedy Jam at 16, which means he had to have started at 14, maybe even as early as
13. You don't just walk on TV doing jokes. You got to try and try and try again. And this isn't even just about standup comedy. We can just talk about skits. Let's talk about Duski. Let's talk about Desi Banks. Hey, we can talk about
Country Wayne. You think every skit they did off the top was funny? No. You post it, somebody on the internet go, "That ain't funny. I ain't like that." Okay, you take the note, you figure out how you can make it better. And then you go right back up online with something else and you have to keep punching. And I'm
willing to bet anybody you laugh at right now online, anybody you watch, I don't care if it's if it's I show speed, that's the one, right? I'm a little old. It's it's speed, right? Every every every live stream may not hit like the one that you saw the last
week or the week before, but these people, they keep trying. You keep continuing because people who don't like you, that's a dime a dozen. And most of them don't matter. And the main thing as well with whatever
you're pursuing, whatever goal you're after, you cannot let people who are too scared to chase after what they want to go after. Stop letting them folks hate on you and influence you. Let them run their mouth and go, "Yeah, all right, cool, man. You ain't funny. That skit
was lame as hell." Okay, cool. I'mma put another one up tomorrow and I'm gonna put another one up the next day and I guarantee you, you'll start finding your audience. You start finding the people who rock with you. And the same goes for family cuz low key
some of your family be the biggest haters too cuz they ain't chased after nothing and they going to try and talk you out of it. Don't disregard wisdom, but understand the difference between wisdom and hating. Because some people are going to
try and talk you out of something versus people who are going to show you a better way to achieve it. That's wisdom. And that's the difference between wisdom and hate. You know, because there's a way for, I'm be real, there's a way for grown-ups
and teachers and folks in authority, people who all in charge of your life right now. There is a way to know whether or not they're trying to guide you or discourage you. And to me, the number one thing is that if they telling you to get your education, okay, fine.
They not wrong. But in the same breath, come back and ask them how would you go about this? Because the answer can't be don't do it because you already got the itch. So seek out guidance from people that have already done something or already climbed a mountain or have
already strived to take a risk in doing something and you'll see you'll see you you'll see man if you research anybody that you like. Go find anything they did five years ago, 10 years ago, I bet you
gonna find something that wasn't funny. I bet you gonna find something that doesn't impress you. And then ask yourself if that person you're impressed by now, what if they had stopped then? So I don't know. I'm sorry to start preaching like that. Let me take a sip
of soap. It's fine. I promise. You just gave us a very powerful message. Well, I took from that personally. You said, "Don't let others who are afraid to go and do what they want to do influence you or dim
your light." And seek guidance from the right. Why do that? Why you doing that? That ain't even that don't even make no sense. I would like for the audience to give us some questions. If anybody has a couple questions, I would like you to put them down below. So, we have a question right
now. It says, "You spoke about being suspended ultimately change your trajecus ultimately change your trajectory. What advice would you give our youth about the company they keep?
You got to be careful. You got to be careful who you hang with because this also goes back to goals. If you hanging with people that don't have a goal or don't have something that they're focused on or locked in on, those people could go anywhere. They can make any type of decision because they
don't care about their life. Um, you know, I kept a lot of bad company, but in a lot of ways, I'm going to be honest, I was the bad company. You know, I was the one that had the credit cards and told everybody door, we fa to get some clothes. And
then everybody got arrested. And I got cuz I was the ring lead. I'll tell you a quick story about a boy I knew down in um Tallahassee. Uh he was on an engineering scholarship.
This boy smart, 3.8 GPA, ain't got no business doing some of the stuff he was doing. got to running with some cats because they think being big and bad and having a gun like you working to impress other other other folks who ain't about nothing. You got a gun that's only going
to impress other people with a gun. All right. How's it where does that get you in life? And so, so my boy, my boy Duck, he's running with some cats. And Duck, they went and they robbed a Denny's in
Tallahassee. These boys is like 17, 18 years old. They go in the Denny's and they rob everybody in the every single person that's in sitting there. They go in there, they rob. By the time they get out there, the police sitting on their car eating a snack, just patiently waiting on them to come out the Denny's.
And so they get arrested, they get probation. Now in Florida, they have a law called 1020 life. And what it means is that if a gun is pulled out in the commission of a crime, you automatically
get 10 years in jail. If the trigger is pulled, you automatically get 20 years. If the bullet strikes someone, whether it whether they live or die, you get life in prison. That's the law. I don't know if it's still on the books now, but in the late 90s, 1020 life was still a
law um about guns, right? So, these boys robbed Denny's. They never pull out a gun. They're on they're out on bail awaiting trial for that robbery. Duck is still hanging with these same dudes. Remember, 3.8 GPA. Ain't got no
reason to be behaving like this. They go riding one night and Duck is with these same dudes and they go, "Hey, pull over real quick. I'm gonna run in this store real quick and grab something." Duck is in the car. He go, the boys go
inside the store, pull a gun, buck two shots into the ceiling to get everybody's attention. Everybody lay down. Them boys in there, rob the whole gas station situation, come back out. Sure enough, they get pulled over a couple blocks later. Everybody go to
jail for 20 years, including Doug. Because you already you already out on the first robbery and instead of getting your head straight and trying to cut a deal to stay free, you running with the same crew. Now everybody go to prison.
He might have just got out. That was 99. I think it was 99 when Duck got arrested. So, you know, it may not even be about the decision you make. You could be living a life of
consequence based on someone else's decisions. And I'm telling you right now, the person who going to make the worst decisions in your circle is the person who ain't got no goals. They ain't striving for nothing. So, be very careful. Be very careful
about people like that. And if you ain't got no goal, you better go find one because I guarantee you that's gonna motivate you to start figuring out how you can focus and spend time on that. There is somebody in this. There's somebody on earth right now that's doing
what you wish you could be doing. Google them, read up on them, listen to their podcast episodes. I guarantee you somewhere in one of them p podcast episodes, it's a gym. Don't just watch them do the thing that
you love them doing. Study them. Read about them. And I think from you'll start finding something draws you to hanging with the right crowd or focusing on the thing. Hey man, I can't run with y'all to the thing. I want to
stay at the house and learn video editing. Oh, I can't go with you to the thing because I want to go back and understand social media marketing so I can build my channel and monetize and get a little bread. So, you know, you can either be the
influence or you can be influenced. That's amazing. So, make sure you are being the influence and are keeping the right people around because you never want anybody who's going to impact you negatively to be in your circle. So,
that's a very valuable life lesson. A very valuable life lesson. Yeah, I will say that. Thank you for that. That was a powerful message once again. So, you're not just a comedian and an actor and all. You're a motivational speaker, too. I see. I don't know about that. I'm just I'm
just a dude that made a couple mistakes and I can look back on them and see where I could have made some better decisions is all. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us. You know, sometimes you have to go through things to know things. I'm
realizing that the older I get. So, I have another question I would like to ask you. If you don't mind, I want to ask you, as someone who uses humor to connect with people, what has comedy
taught you about love, relationships, and being truly understood by others, especially during times when life doesn't feel so funny? I think people I don't think human beings are that complicated of a people.
You just want to know that someone cares about you, someone loves you, or that you're not alone in feeling the way you feel. That's really what comedy has taught me. So, the only way to make sure that people don't feel alone is to be honest about what you're going through,
you know, on stage or in life or what you see, you know, to bring it back to a lot of these sketch comedians, you know. There's another one I can't think of right now. Is it Haha Funny Davis or is it Lou?
Might be Lou. Um, but these boys, they will like make a video that is super relatable to something that you know or something that you experience. So, if you're a viewer and you see that video, then
you're automatically going, "Oh, dang. He sees me. He understands exactly what I'm going through." Okay, dope. I understand that now. So, I think that it's about making sure that
it's it to me it's it's really about making sure that whatever you're saying is honest because whatever you're going through, somebody else went through it. Oh, I'm I'm not sure if if my if my boyfriend or girl I don't know if they
like Oh, I think they don't love me for real. But you got to be honest about that and that takes a lot of courage, you know. So I think before you start talking about yourself, whether it's poetry or writing or whatever the art form is, talk about
what you see. If you're writing a song, talk about the things you see. Talk about what other people what you've seen other people go through. What are your feelings on it? I think good art, no matter the medium, it could be painting, music, you can write a movie, you write a play, it don't matter. Good art should
answer one of two question. It should inform the audience of one of two things. One, who are you as a person or two, how do you feel about a particular issue or a particular thing? So, who are you or how do you feel? If you start
with either one of those, you going to be in a good place. So, being that these newer um sketch comedians know kind of, you know, what the population is going through or the youth or just us people in general and
they take it and make it relatable or how we can relate to it. You know, sometimes they take it and instead of it being just a skit or just a comedy, they take the things that we're going through and make fun of
them. if you get what I'm saying. So, I want to ask you, how do you decide if a joke is too far or off limits? For me, it's not up to the comedian to decide when you've gone too far. Oh man,
that was too mean. That's up to the audience to decide. I don't believe that any comedian operates in any place other than trying to make people laugh. Period. Now whether or not you think that that topic or that joke angle is
worth laughing about, you know, whether you calling somebody ugly or overweight or you making fun of them because they got special needs, then those lines definitely the audience can decide, all right, you crossed the line there. All right, you shouldn't have said that.
Well, then as a comedian, you have to decide whether you're going to continue to do the types of things that are funny to you that make your brand unique or if you're going to constantly change to what everyone else thinks. I think you have to understand as a performer
though, there is a penalty in making people mad. You might not get as much money. You might not get as many hits. They might delete your page. They might demonetize you on YouTube. I've seen that happen to a lot of cats. Now, if if the joke is worth it to you to stand on
ten toes like that, then you go right ahead. But just know that more often than not. If you are always changing based on what people decide, then who are you?
Because the people always change. The people's opinion. Oh. Oh, that ain't cool no more. Okay. All right. This cool. All right. We say this word. Hey, we don't say that word no more. Well, who are you? Because if it's just constantly changing for what is
digestible to the masses, then you run the risk of losing, you know, being unique, you know, for for lack of a better word. I'm not saying go out there and just be offensive, but I am saying that you crack enough jokes, eventually you're
going to find somebody that has a problem with something that you said, no matter how calm and basic you may have viewed the statement to be. Okay, that's great. Uh, do we have any more
questions that people want to put in the comments right now? This has been great. You're a great interviewer by Okay. Um, very prepared. There is a question here. I don't see
it. Let's see. Hopefully, it'll pop up soon. Here it is. Tell us a little bit about becoming an author and about your book, The Man of Many Fathers. Ah, so I wrote a book. It's not out till
October, but um the book is basically about so my dad died when I was 16 and because of that there's just a lot of advice that a father might give a son that I didn't get but when I look at my life I
got all of the values that I needed but I got them in a lot of random places from a lot of random people. So, I decided to write a book that just compiles a lot of the stories of how I learn particular values and what those values mean to me and how I could pass I
have a nine-year-old, so I think often about how I could pass those values uh down to him. So, yeah, the book is just about, you know, when you talk about not snitching on somebody, there there's a value in that to some degree at work. Minding your business is really probably
a better way of phrasing it. Um, but the idea of, you know, loving your mom, like that's a value that was handed down to me and, you know, having respect for women and so it was it was fun to write and I'm just I'm very excited for that to drop when it does.
That's great. Um, I want to ask you a question about your mom. So, could you describe to us a relationship? Well, the relationship that you had with your mother and how it impacted you when you
were young and now. Uh, my mother and I, you know, my mom is my best friend, you know, but, you know, we went through some hard heartache when I got to college. You know, it was a very difficult time between me and her. Um, you know, because I wanted to do
comedy and, you know, my mom has always been my biggest supporter of I've ever wanted to do in life. And with comedy, the deal we made were was, you know, if I can make good grades, then you can't
say anything to me about stand up. And she agreed. So, I started doing standup and I was on the deans list the rest of the way when I was in college, you know, straight AV honor.
And I get to about a year back in school and my mom put down money for me to get a car to keep me from riding the Greyhound everywhere. So, you know, this is a woman who didn't understand what I was doing, but she respected the pursuit and
she respected the dedication and that was enough for us to um for us to kind of see, I don't want to say eye to eye, but there was a level of respect. All right, if you going to get your grades, then I I'm not going to say anything about you
doing comedy and riding all over the country on the Greyhound bus because it's not affecting your grades. And I identified what was important to my mom and tried to feed that beast and then in turn was able to do what I wanted to do
without there being any real, you know, intrusion by her. Fast forward to today, my mama be mad when I don't tell her that I'mma be on TV. You know, my mom be like legit upset about that type of stuff. So, it's been
cool. you know, it's been real cool to um to be with her on this part of my journey now considering, you know, where it started. But, you know, my mom, you know, my parents didn't get back together till I was in the fourth grade and my pops died
when I was a senior in high school. So, my mom ain't done nothing but work and grind to try and keep the lights on, keep the IRS. When my dad died, the IRS came to take the house. And me and my mom had to work extra shifts. I was in high school. I was working 30 hours a
week. Fast food. I ain't supposed to You ain't supposed to be legally You're not even supposed to work that much, but you want to eat this week or not? You want the heat on this winter or not? So, you know, my mom has just always
been somebody that put her head down, don't complain, and do what she got to do. And I definitely got that from her, and I'm thankful for that. Thank you for sharing that with us. Once again, a powerful piece coming from you.
I do want to ask you one more question about your mother, but first we have a question in the comments. It says, "In entertainment, how important is Memphis to the culture?" Very important.
Memphis, like here, let me tell you a Birmingham story. Um, Memphis is a trend setting city and this doesn't just go back to the blues and the Delta and jazz, you know, it goes it
it's just the roots in that city are so unique. And one of the most beautiful things about Memphis, and to me, I'll identify three cities that do this. Memphis, New Orleans, Atlanta, I guess Miami.
Those four cities support their own artists. If we talking southern cities, I'll throw in Houston, too. Part of why Memphis has a unique sound is that the city of Memphis and musicians and like radio station,
everybody, y'all support local talent. Then on top of that, if you are local talent, you can't sound like anybody else. It's not allowed. You'll get stomped out. If somebody came out in Memphis right now trying to do Project
Pat's flow or Dolph's flow, they not gonna get played on the radio. They get booed out the joint. So that level of local support for artists, it's unprecedented. And that's part of
why Memphis has culture that's able to influence everywhere else because people are always seeking out the thing that's unique or different or bold, you know, which is why outside of Memphis, when you start going to a lot of other cities, you start having
artists that just sound like they trying to do their own version of what Memphis do. Sound like they trying to do their own version of Atlanta. We had that problem in Alabama for a very long time. Though I feel like part of the issue in Alabama when I was doing
hip-hop radio was that radio stations did not support local artists. And so the only way you could get played in the South if you were from a part where you didn't get local support was that sonically you had to sound similar to what the other stations were playing.
You had to have that flavor. You had to and it's hard to imitate Memphis Code. can't I can't I don't even fool with y'all's draw. I ain't even trying to learn that Memphis accent and I Dane show can't juke can't do it. So it it's it's one of
those things where you know Memphis culture is paramount in influencing the rest of the world. You know, there's a there's a I saw on a t-shirt one time. It said, "Atlanta take. Atlanta makes and the world
takes." I feel the same way about Memphis. Definitely. They be taking everything. I'm surprised you don't know how to juke though. We got to teach you. So, I have a couple My bones don't work like that no more.
I don't believe that. Look at you. Check him out. Like I was saying, I have a couple of rapid fire questions for you. It's going to be simple stuff. So, answer them like that just off the top of your head. You think you can do that?
Okay. Okay. So, in your grits, do you like salt or sugar? Salt. Okay. Your ribs, do you like them dry rub or sauce? Sauce. Who's your favorite baseball
player? King Griffy Jr. Willie Mays tie. Okay, I'll take that. Okay. Rap Drake or Kendrick Lamar? Oh, Kendrick. Yep. Oh, my bad. Who was the last person
you saw in concert? Oh, Lord. I'm gonna date myself. I think it was Big Crit. Yeah. Yeah, it was Crit. Yeah, Big Crit.
Wow. Okay. Is that before my time? Yes. Now, wait now. Hang on. You acting like I said BB King or something. Big Crit ain't from like 10 years ago. He had the sauce 10 years ago. Don't see
y'all be disrespectful now. Y'all see you youngans. I gotta close this computer up right now. Okay. So, um, first I would like to say thank you to everybody who has tuned in
and came to watch this today. Can I get your final thought on what's going on? Anything else you want to tell us or share to the youth or people who are watching in general? Um, you know, I said most of what I had to say, but you know, I just want to
make sure that that everybody watching this, you know, just know that you have a gift and it's that thing that you aren't sure about. It's that thing that you wonder if you're good enough to do. It's that
thing that you don't really want to tell nobody that you like to do. It's that it's that one Tik Tok account you always looking at and curious about and you look at it and you kind of hate on it a little bit. You go, I wonder if I could do that. I bet y'all could do a better version of that.
And go do it. Go do it. Go be terrible. And then the more you're terrible, the greater you will eventually be. Rest comfortably in failure, knowing that failure is part of the process of
growth. And do not worry about Anybody who takes joy in pointing out that you failed at something, you're supposed to fail. Amen to that. There you go. Thank you so much for being here to
speak with us today and sharing us some of your life experience as well as these amazing valuable lessons. You did an amazing job. I just want to tell you that I myself have had my personal intake from this and it is great. So
also once again, thank you to everybody who joined and tuned in and commented. Thank you all for being here and thank you Mr. Roywood Jr. You continue to keep us smiling, laughing, and informed. You have a great afternoon and everybody
else here have a wonderful afternoon. Thank you very much. And shout out to Catfish Cabin. RIP Catfish Cabin. And everybody go Google Vitr and and listen to a classic from Mississippi. I'm sorry for pointing. I'm getting
aggressive. On behalf of Memphis Shelby County Schools, we'd like to thank our wonderful guests and you, the audience, for joining us today. I hope you were enlightened and entertained. Be sure to follow us on your favorite social media
platforms for more great programs just like this. Remember, greatness grows here.