'Coming from America', Comedian, Gerald Kelly

0:00Guest 2You can see on the flight from the first episode that I was sitting next to Hunter, our baby boy.

0:06Guest 1Yeah.

0:06Guest 2Right? And so we were sitting together, but he wanted more space so he can stretch out because there was a few extra, spaces or so he could go…

0:15Guest 1Okay, so I want you to remember how it was. She and I separated, so…

0:18Guest 2She had an attitude

0:19Guest 1... She didn't wanna... You know, she was in her little space, you know?

0:22Guest 2So, yes.

0:24Guest 1I was like, "Why?" She was turning her back to me in the seat like this.

0:29Guest 2Oh my gosh. You know what?

0:30Guest 1And I started mumbling. I kept mumbling to myself.

0:33Guest 2This is part of the comedy that he makes up in his head, and then he shares with the world.

0:37Guest 1I kept mumbling to myself going…... "Do you know I got you and air… going to Africa?" I says, "You gonna go to Africa and not be showing me love? Oh." Let me go to sleep.

0:48Guest 2He finally went to sleep.

0:49Guest 1I finally went to sleep. I woke up, we were there.

0:53Guest 2It was the best sleep of my life, too.

1:04Jawad MirI wanna ask you where you are, because that will give away the series. And I like the wall keeps it very simple. The…

1:15Guest 2It's simple. I love simplicity and its beauty

1:19Jawad Mir... I haven't finished the series yet. I've seen the first four episodes so far. And I've really enjoyed it, and it's, interesting that Jeremy, you know, connected us and I... Not that I didn't dig any other story, I dug your story way more. Not to... Personally, just for me, right? Everybody else will relate to it differently. And I thought

1:43Guest 1It's easy

1:44Jawad Mir... And I thought the genuineness that you guys had, the simplicity, which is something you said, came across, you know, really fine, like a fine thread. So thank you so much for being part of it.

1:55Guest 1I appreciate you.

1:56Guest 2Absolutely.

1:56Guest 1Thank you for, thank you for watching and enjoying it.

1:58Guest 2Yes. We are transparent and we appreciate just, you know, you sharing that moment with us, so thank you.

2:07Jawad MirLet's go back in time and find out how this all started.

2:12Guest 2Sure. We gotta take a journey back.

2:16Guest 1Let's go back.

2:18Guest 2Back in time.

2:22Jawad MirSo how did you guys... Did you g… were you guys approached by HBO or the producers or is it something that you were thinking of doing? Just talk about that sort of process, how that came to be.

2:32Guest 1Well, me personally, as a professional comedian, and all my sons do comedy. They do comedy all over the world.

2:38Jawad MirRight.

2:39Guest 1And we had never been to Africa. It was gonna be a challenge to go there, you know? You know, I wanted to go back home to the motherland and, you know, preferably West Africa, and I kept hearing so much great things about Ghana. Great comedian friend of mine, Michael Blackson, he was like, "If anybody, if anybody can do comedy in any country, it's you." It's the ink in the way I write. The way I write…... Everyone can relate to my material. You know, I write about, we write about family, being married, going through separations, divorce, having children, politics, ra… you know, what... You know, everything.

3:14Jawad MirRight.

3:14Guest 1We talk about something every, everyone across the world can go, "I can relate."

3:18Guest 2Very relatable.

3:19Guest 1So I wanted, yes, I wanted to get there, but it was in my mind. And then I got a buddy of mine who called me one day and said his wife is friends with a producer, a producer, and they're looking for a comedian, his family…

3:40Guest 2A comedic family

3:41Guest 1... A comedic family to go to Ghana. And he was like…

3:45Jawad MirWow

3:45Guest 1... "I can't think of nobody else but you." He called me and I connected her, talked to her. My wife talked to her. She's, you know... And then, next thing I know, the phone call came through. We all had a couple of meetings and couple of Zooms, and we was excited and, you know, the only thing, the only bad thing about it is, you know, when it came through, you know, we was going through a sepa… a se…

4:10Guest 2Yeah

4:10Guest 1... Separation.

4:11Guest 2Get the word, separation.

4:12Guest 1Almost, you know, almost divorce and, you know, and…

4:16Guest 2Yeah

4:16Guest 1... And I, first thing I said was, "I'm not going to Africa with her. I can't even get a date in America with her."

4:24Jawad MirWell, I mean, drama sells, right? That probably struck gold to the HBO producers.

4:30Guest 2Yeah. Well, Jeremy…

4:31Guest 1Yeah

4:31Guest 2... From Hot Snakes, they're one of the executive producers, definitely saw it befitting, once talking with us, that we might definitely be able to, you know, share in our experience and our journey and so the cards just fell where they would, at that time. So we were very appreciative and, excited even though we were going through what we were going through just to see, you know, just to get that experience that we've always wanted to have, so.

4:59Guest 1I knew it was a problem when we got on the plane, the flight. We got on a flight, it was a 15-hour flight. So my mindset is, on a flight with you, my wife, you know, we're going through the separation. You know, you know we don't hug and touch like we used to. Da. Give me 15 hours on a plane, I'm gonna change her, turn this around.

5:18Guest 2It was not 15 hours.

5:19Guest 1The flight was 12 to 15 hours.

5:21Guest 2It was, it was nine hours.

5:22Guest 1It was no nine hours. Nine hours?

5:24Guest 2Okay, small details.

5:26Guest 1Well, anyway…

5:28Jawad MirWith probably the layover and check-in and all that.

5:31Guest 1Yeah, I mean…

5:31Guest 2It was a straight overnight flight

5:32Guest 1... It was a straight flight.

5:33Jawad MirOh, it was a direct flight. Okay.

5:34Guest 2He slept, so he probably thought it was longer than what it was.

5:37Guest 1I looked up, I looked up and she was sitting, she was sitting in a seat by herself. She didn't wanna sit with me.

5:44Guest 2You were cruel.

5:45Guest 1She was like, "I'm sitting over here."

5:47Guest 2He's just…

5:48Guest 1You know, being bougie, you know? We're not gonna…

5:51Guest 2You can see on the flight from the first episode that I was sitting next to Hunter, our baby boy.

5:57Guest 1Yeah.

5:57Guest 2Right? And so we were sitting together, but he wanted more space so he can stretch out because there was a few extra, spaces or so he could go…

6:06Guest 1Okay, so I want you to remember how it was. She and I separated, so…

6:10Guest 2She had an attitude

6:10Guest 1... She didn't wanna, you know, she was in her little space, you know?

6:13Guest 2So, yes.

6:15Guest 1I was like, "Why?" She was turning her back to me in the seat like this

6:20Guest 2Oh, my gosh. You know what?

6:22Guest 1And I started mumbling. I kept mumbling to myself.

6:24Guest 2This is part of the comedy that he makes up in his head, and then he shares with the world.

6:28Guest 1I kept mumbling to myself going… "Do you know I got you and I are going to Africa? This is, you gonna go to Africa and not be showing me love? Ugh." Then we go to sleep.

6:40Guest 2He finally went to sleep.

6:41Guest 1I finally went to sleep. And woke up, we were there.

6:44Guest 2It was the best sleep of my life, too. Oh.

6:49Jawad MirThat's amazing.

6:51Guest 2Yeah, amazing.

6:51Jawad MirWell, let me, let me ask you this. Would you both have taken that leap of faith had things been not rocky?

7:00Guest 2Absolutely. We would have taken that leap of faith because, again, we've... That was a place that we've always wanted to go and visit and experience, right? Being African American, we wanted to trace our roots back, right? To, where our ancestors came from. You know, get some of, make some of the connections to where we have some of our culture that we thought maybe we lost during that transatlantic slave trade. And so going back, when we say going back, although we'd never been there personally at the time, we knew our ancestors came from there.

7:37Guest 2So going back was very spiritual for us. It was a spiritual journey, and we're just excited to continue the journey.

7:46Jawad MirRight. But h… I mean, as you add, people will see in the episodes, and again, not trying to find out w… how it unfolds, just…

7:54Guest 2Right

7:54Jawad Mir... With the idea of, okay, we're gonna relocate, right? Like, we're gonna pack our bags and we're gonna go. And then you go through all those struggles. Like, you know, for example, this, I wouldn't call it a struggle, but you know, thir… the first world problems, going to the grocery store and not finding your brand of chips, right?

8:12Guest 2And the milk. That threw me off. I don't know where this happens anywhere else, but in America, the milk is generally in a refrigerated section of the grocery store. So I didn't know if it was like a powdered milk, or I wasn't quite sure. I was a little perplexed with that.

8:29Guest 1And I just wanted to ask…... "Excuse me, hello. Can somebody help me? What's going on here?" And they were per… They were like, "No, this is fine. You're…"

8:38Guest 2"This is where it is."

8:38Guest 1"This is where it is."

8:39Guest 2We're like, "Are you sure?" "Yeah, this is where it is." I was excited to find some Folgers coffee, okay? I was just happy about that. Identifying some products I was familiar with. So that was…

8:50Guest 1I was happy to find, Pizza Hut. I was like, "Oh, I... Man, come on." I was like, "You know what? This Africa stuff…"

9:03Guest 2The boys were, too.

9:04Guest 1"This Africa stuff is not bad at all."

9:09Guest 2Oh, the boys were excited to have some familiarity as well.

9:13Jawad MirYeah.

9:14Guest 2So, yeah.

9:14Jawad MirIt's har… it's harder for the kids mostly because, I mean, they'll adapt fast too, but at the same time…

9:19Guest 2Right

9:20Jawad Mir... It's very difficult for them in the beginning.

9:22Guest 2Right.

9:23Jawad MirH… how hard is it with cameras being around? I mean, I know you're a comedian, but still, just with your entire family being followed and, you know, and trying to, not trying to fake anything, because, like, you can't lie on camera. Once anybody acts on camera, you know they're just BS'ing, right? And it comes through…

9:41Guest 2Yeah. Right

9:41Jawad Mir... Like I said, complete gen… being genuine on camera. So how difficult was it? Was it challenging? Oh, you know, here's the crew again. We can't even have our privacy.

9:51Guest 1You know, it... You wanna speak on it?

9:55Guest 2Yeah, I can speak on it.

9:56Guest 1'Cause I'll tell you my part after.

9:57Guest 2Yeah.

9:58Jawad MirOf course.

9:58Guest 2I think for us it was more so natural because, as you mentioned, Gerald's a comedian. And so if you think about it, we promote a lot on social media, and living in the day of social media, most times we're recording some of the things that we do on a day-to-day.

10:15Guest 2And we're showing our authentic selves because this is who we are, right? He's naturally funny. Like, he doesn't have to sit here and try to think of jokes. They just come to mind. And I'm always dealing with this at home with my sons as well, my husband and our sons. And so this is what real life looks like for us. This is, you know, not... And that's why it's an unscripted reality show, because this is really reality for us. So as far as the cameras following us around, a lot, you know, of course, we had the times where they were there and we had our moments. Like, it's, it was really about finding that balance for our family. Although it was more elevated because we, you know, it, we weren't controlling the phone like we do on social media.

11:00Jawad MirYeah.

11:00Guest 2They were, you know. But yeah, overall, it's, it was very natural I think.

11:06Guest 1So the cameras following me normally wouldn't be a problem. But there was times that I genuinely was like, "Dude, get the camera out my face. I miss my wife. I'm hurting here." "I'm hurting here." And then, "Can we catch that?" "No. Why? We won't catch everything, man." This is real. You know what? Keep the cameras rolling.

11:30Guest 2Real life.

11:30Guest 1It's real life. I, you know, I'm like, I don't wanna be, you know, sometimes in... Like…

11:35Guest 2Yeah

11:35Guest 1... I understood the mission, what it was about, what the purpose was. But I also had my other mission. I had a mission. I was on a mission. The only person that knew about that mission was me. You know what I'm saying?

11:49Jawad MirYeah.

11:49Guest 2But sharing and capturing real life, and this is real life…

11:52Guest 1Yeah

11:52Guest 2... To be able to project that to, those that are watching, now watching the show, this is why we have feedback such as yourself where you say, "I felt that. I can relate to that. Like, I can tell this is honest and real."

12:05Guest 2Because it was, and it is. Yeah.

12:08Jawad MirYeah. A… so I'm a director and producer myself, and I've done documentaries where we have followed protagonists, and there's always that time…

12:17Guest 2Right

12:17Jawad Mir... You're debating, right? Especially, like, for example… One of the films that I did, it was a very serious thing where somebody was in a detention center and we were filming in there secretly. And I had to constantly ask him, "Put your emotions aside and film," you know, because that's, at the end of the day, it's something that you committed to. But at the same time, it's very hard to ask that because then you're being selfish, right? Like, you're putting yourself first before them. But one thing I really related in the film was, so I went to Nigeria in 2010, and I remember at the time the DS… I'm not... You guys are probably familiar with DSLR cameras, like Canon 5D and 5D II.

12:57Guest 1Oh, 5Ds, yeah. I do, yeah.

12:59Jawad MirYeah. At that time, they were brand new. Like, they had just started to come out to make films or documentaries or whatever, events. So I remember I was, we were there and everybody was like, "What the hell is this?" And I was telling my colleague, "If we move here, we'll probably make, like, a million dollars a year," because everybody was fascinated with it. And that's what I related to you in terms of your comedy, how you guys…

13:21Guest 1It's…

13:21Jawad Mir... Were doing that you can tap into…

13:23Guest 1It's…

13:23Jawad Mir... That audience. There's always something out there.

13:26Guest 1You build it, they'll come. And I was out there like, "Okay," I'm, I'm like, "Hey, man, I'm gonna make this work." This what I do. Comedy is my life besides my family. I'm gonna make it work. I'm gonna make it work, and I'm determined to make it work out in Ghana. Determined. There's no comedy clubs out. None. But watch. Watch.

13:53Jawad MirWell, one of the things that, I think it was you or somebody else or your son said it when, in the very first episode, that in Ghana it's more like physical comedy as opposed to, you know…

14:03Guest 2Right

14:03Jawad Mir... Verbal. Is that something that you do in your routine anyways?

14:09Guest 1Well, maybe my middle son, Josh, is the... He's the only physical comic out of the four of us, Joshua. But, you know, we have facial expressions that people go, "Oh my God." You can feel it with the facial expressions.

14:27Guest 1End up saying, me, Hunter, Isaiah, we're, we're physical here comics, you know?

14:32Guest 2Right.

14:32Guest 1If there's a joke that needs some physicality, we'll, we'll get to it, we'll do it. You know? But I, the writing is so, clever and mainstream across the world that everyone gets it. If you understand the language, if you understand the language, you're gonna get the material. And all it takes is me and my sons to be in a city or country for maybe a day or two, and we can go around and we can write material about your town, your city, so the audience can relate to what we're talking about.

15:10Jawad MirWonderful.

15:10Guest 2Yeah. Definitely the facial expressions

15:13Guest 1Pardon me

15:14Guest 2... Of Gerald. You need some water, huh? Definitely the facial expressions and the animation that they bring to the stage is something that connects with the Ghanaian audience, as mentioned in the first episode, and it's something that they already had incorporated into their comedy. That's something they've done for a long time. With Gerald, his facial expressions when he's... Or his voice changes when he's talking, from a third person perspective like Grandma or, you know, somebody like that. And so all of the kids in, they do all of that. They switch it up. And so that physical comedy piece was something that they already had. So going over there, we figured that this would work, because we already had that in play. So yeah.

16:01Jawad MirNice. How did you guys meet?

16:04Guest 1How did we meet?

16:04Guest 2Yeah, the truth of the matter is when he said we met in a club, that is not true, okay?

16:11Guest 1It wasn't.

16:11Guest 2It was not a club. Wasn't a club.

16:14Guest 1It wasn't.

16:14Guest 2It was an event. What it was it was a

16:18Guest 1A ballroom at a hotel.

16:19Guest 2Yes.

16:19Guest 1They had, they had a... She's a music journalist and I'm a comic, so she was there to see the group. There was a group there, I think Intro.

16:26Guest 2That was performing.

16:27Guest 1Performing. And that…

16:27Guest 2And I was doing a write-up on that group

16:29Guest 1... Yeah. And one of the lead, the lead singer didn't show up, so the group was…

16:32Guest 2Well, the lead singer passed away.

16:34Guest 1Okay. Well, he didn't show up. Passed away, he didn't show up. I mean…

16:37Guest 2Gosh

16:38Guest 1... Tell me something. He didn't show up. I mean…

16:40Guest 2He didn't show up

16:41Guest 1... If he would've showed up, that would've been a different story. That would've been, that would've been a, something to talk about, you know? But

16:46Jawad MirI mean, technically you're both right

16:48Guest 2... But Gerald was the host. Yeah. Well, yeah, but Gerald was the host of the actual, event, and that's how we met. He kind of walked through the crowd and he was talking to people, doing crowd work, and I was like, "Oh, gosh, I hope he doesn't come over here and make..." You know, some people just don't wanna be made fun of, so I was hoping…... That he wouldn't come over to my section and start cracking jokes, but he just... He did come over to my section. He shook my hand and complimented m… me because I guess my hands were so soft. And, after the show he proceeded to have a conversation with me. I was actually trying to get back, me and my photographer were trying to get back to our side of town, so I was ready to go because I was highly disappointed about the show, but I was very entertained by the host, and so I held conversation with him after the show.

17:37Guest 1Yeah. And we exchanged numbers, and I thought I struck gold. I was like... L… let me tell you how... I dro… we drove, me and two other comics drove all the way back to New York, two hours and 20 minute ride back, and halfway, almost 30 minutes into New York, I go, "I forgot to get paid." "I forgot to get my money from the producer." And I was like... And there was no, there was no Zelle or Cash App and stuff like that then.

18:10Guest 2Right.

18:10Guest 1You know? So I'm like, m… one of my buddies said, "Dude, you was all into that girl, man. You forgot about your money?" So I said, "I'll call him. He'll get it to me some kind of way or whatever." But... And I, we, I think we talked to each other that night… And then she disappeared. She disappeared. I'm talking about, I'm like, "What happened?" No call, no talking, no return of calls or nothing, no more. So I said, "Okay. Oh, well." So New Year's Eve hits months later. I'm out of the country performing. I think I'm in Bermuda, the Bahamas, somewhere performing, and you know how you get all the n… the Happy New Year's texts coming in? And it came through.

18:57Guest 2It says…

18:58Guest 1I sent a happy… I sent the, I sent the Happy New Year's text to her.

19:02Guest 2Everybody. It was a group text.

19:03Guest 1A group text. And in the group, people responding, but when she responded, I was like, "Oh, that's her. That's her. That's her. Oh my God." "She's, she's, she's call… she's texting me personally Happy New Year's." But all she was doing was responding to the group text. That's it.

19:22Guest 2That's a Happy New Year's…... Too, and from there, we, started texting back and forth, and then we started having phone conversations because he was in New York, I was in Massachusetts. And then one, day, it was wintertime, we decided to go on a date, and he came to my town. And the first date was Gerald, myself, and our children.

19:47Guest 1That's true. When I g… I brought my littlest… well, I brought my middle son with me. Josh was young.

19:53Guest 2He was the youngest at the time.

19:54Guest 1Young… y… yeah, he was the youngest at the time. The Hunter wasn't even born. But, when I got off the, when I left New York, the weather was beautiful. When I came up to Massachusetts, I was like, "What in the world?" It's cold already, freezing.

20:06Guest 2Heavy with snowing.

20:07Guest 1Snowing and everything, and I go to sit down with this beautiful woman, and she had about nine kids. I'm like, "How many kids you got?"

20:16Guest 2She's adding kids on every time we tell this story.

20:18Guest 1There's about 11 kids. I'm like…

20:20Guest 2I have three children. Three

20:22Guest 1... Yeah, three children, and it was beautiful. I was like, "You know what? I love kids." I'm joking, but I love kids a lot. You know, I, you know, we all hung out, and I think, I think we,.. You didn't go back home. Did you hang out? Did you, did we hang out?

20:36Guest 2Yeah, we hung out for a little while.

20:37Guest 1Hung out for a little while, and, you know, I had to go get a hotel room with me and my little son, and her and her kids went back to their place. And, I was like, "Yes." And it was, it's been, it's been on since. And then until we hit this r… this bump recently.

20:53Guest 2What? A lot of relationships go through ups and downs, right?

20:57Guest 1Yeah.

20:57Guest 2And it's really about figuring it out and just making sure that both parties are being seen, valued, heard, you know, appreciated, finding that balance, even juggling the kids and the careers and all these things. And so, you know, that's where we, were when we f… when we did the, as you see in the first episode, and we continue to work on ways to get back to that place. So we'll see how it goes.

21:25Guest 1You love me.

21:26Guest 2I did not. You keep making songs.

21:32Jawad MirI think you guys should, you know Steve Harvey, right?

21:36Guest 2Yes.

21:36Guest 1Steve Harvey.

21:37Jawad MirHe's actually tapped into the African market, right?

21:40Guest 2Yes.

21:40Jawad MirWith his show…

21:41Guest 1Yeah, I know him

21:41Jawad Mir... Family Feud.

21:43Guest 2Yeah.

21:43Jawad MirYou guys should go on it.

21:45Guest 2Yeah. Well…

21:45Guest 1Would love to. Would love to. I'm trying to

21:47Guest 2... We'll see. We'll see what happens.

21:49Guest 1We've, we've been trying to.

21:51Jawad MirHow did you, get into comedy, man? What was the catalyst that inspired you to be one, to be…

21:58Guest 1So, growing up, I'll, I've always been the funniest guy in my neighborhood, in my family, besides my mom. My mom is a, you know, the entertainment. The funniest guy in my family. My, besides my mom, like I said. But I,.. And you know, g… we were poor, man. We were really poor, and I used to get teased a lot. You know, I'd get teased because of my attire.

22:25Guest 1And then my mother would get hand-me-down clothes from neighbors in the neighborhood who were doing better than us, and the clothes were from the kids who were teasing me. So now I'm wearing these kids' clothes. They have to tease me all the time anyway. So it went from, "Ooh, you is a bum. Look at your clothes. It's dirty. Your clothes got holes in them," to, "He wearing my sneakers. He got on my hat. He got on my clothes," so that, so I learned quickly how to, we call it snapping back then, mother jokes. "Your mother's so fat, she jumped in the air and got stuck." You know, little dumb jokes like that.

23:00Jawad MirYeah.

23:00Guest 1And I was real witty with it. You know what I'm saying? I used to, I could look at somebody's parents and imitate their parents. Turn, I could turn into anyone. I could just make the voices, the noises. I can imite… imitate anyone. So then I went to, middle school, and, you know, talking smack got me into a couple fights, so I didn't talk smack no more. High school, never really talked, thought about being funny. I knew I was funny though, but I just, you know, certain people knew. So then after high school, I joined the Navy. When I got in the Navy, I was in boot camp, 80 people, 80 men in boot camp from different parts of the country. I had everyone laughing every single day. This is when I knew I could make different people of different, ethnic backgrounds laugh.

23:51Guest 2All walks of life.

23:52Guest 1All walks of life laugh. You know what I'm saying? When I was in the Navy, in boot camp. Boot camp, you know?

23:56Jawad MirYeah.

23:56Guest 1So I came home from the Navy, and I was in the Navy for a few years. I came home. I'm in my apartment in the Bronx. I look outside. There's a Lamborghini outside. Never seen one of these. In the Bronx? I go downstairs. A bunch of people surrounding the car. Tracy Morgan, we went to high school together. He was a year or two my senior, so he gra… but he was the funniest dude in high school. I didn't care about being funny in high school. I was like all about the girls in high school. He was funny as hell. So I see him. He goes, "Gerald Kelly. What's up, Gerald Kelly? What's up, Gerald Kelly?" I said, "What's up, Tracy?" "Yo, you need to be doing comedy, yo. Yo, get in the car." I get in the car, man. I'm, I'm looking at the seats. I'm like, this... He's already, he's already, Uptown Comedy Corner

24:46Guest 1... S… not SNL, but Martin. You know, sitcom. So he takes me to a comedy spot two days later and tells me, "You're gonna do five minutes." I wrote three jokes, and I did the three jokes, and they rocked. I was like, "Ah." "You come back the next week. When you rock, you come back." I come back the next week with two more jokes. Confident now. Guess who goes on before me to do a guest spot purposely?

25:19Jawad MirWho?

25:19Guest 1Tracy Morgan.

25:21Jawad MirAh. I see.

25:22Guest 1He's a crowd favorite. He's a star already. He goes up and does, like, 25 minutes, and the place is going cr… crazy. He walks off the stage, looks at me, and go, "Follow that." I go on stage, and I do real good. I don't break it, but I do good. Six, seven months later, I get a phone call from Russell Simmons' team. They wanna book me on Def Comedy Jam. Def Comedy Jam. After Def Comedy Jam, I'm on BET Comedy Field. I'm, I'm on Apollo, Comedy Central, HBO, and I got a little son, who's now 30-something years old.

26:00Guest 2Isaiah.

26:00Guest 1Isaiah. And he's, he's, traveling with me. He's five, six years old in the comedy clubs. We, all the comedians from Bill Bellamy to Chris Tucker to Chris Rock, they used say, "Hide him in the back." 'Cause I had him with me. He wasn't doing comedy yet, but I had him with me 'cause w… I wasn't with his mom anymore, and it was my weekend to be with my kid. So I w… i… instead of me passing a weekend up, I'd be like, "Hell no, I'm gonna keep my kid with me, so I'll bring him to the comedy club." We'd hide him in the back. He'd be in the... And sometimes he'd be outside by the, by the, in the backyards or the, you know, or he'll be in the back of the club. Couldn't come in the front. And I started writing jokes for him. Seven years old, eight years old, I'm writing jokes. Ten y… nine years old, he's on stage with me. And I learned early the comedians, certain venues h… they serve food, a child performer can perform there. It's called a cabaret license. So the rest is history, man. I mean, I've been doing comedy for 30-plus years now.

26:59Jawad MirAmazing, man. And I'm, you know, it's so, a… as you probably, o… obviously will know that how in the last four, five, six years, comedy has been sort of, you know, everybody has to draw a bo… a borderline, like, where, what to cross, what not to cross.

27:16Guest 1Yeah.

27:16Jawad MirBut I'm so glad that it's coming back now, because that's what's so fun about it. Like, you know, yes, it can get offensive sometimes, but at the end of the day, life is too short to be too serious at all times.

27:29Guest 1Serious. Right, yeah.

27:29Jawad MirAnd if you get offended, if you get, if you get offended, that's fine. Just don't tune in. You know? You move on. And…

27:34Guest 1Yeah. Don't come to the show

27:35Jawad Mir... Exactly. But I'm so glad that…

27:38Guest 2You have a right.

27:39Guest 1I thank Da… I thank Dave Chappelle for that. I thank him for... Chappelle pushed the needle, and…

27:45Jawad MirHe did

27:45Guest 1... Didn't, didn't compromise.

27:47Jawad MirYeah. He did, and now there's Matt Rife, who goes completely, you know…... Out there. He says things that you just don't even expect…

27:56Guest 2Right

27:56Jawad Mir... To hear. But you know, going back to the show and this whole idea of going back home, right? Do you feel, aside from your own journey being, you know, trying to find a c… a comedy market and, tr… tracing back to your ancestry, do you feel in Canada and America and England, like, all these countries, there is that time where things are getting very difficult to, you know, you're putting food on the table for people, as well as competition has become intense. There's too much of everything.

28:34Guest 1That's right.

28:34Jawad MirDo you feel people are going to start going back now, just, like, in a similar way, not only to trace your ancestry, but just trying to find a better life as opposed to that they did, you know, 30, 40, 50 years ago by coming to Western countries?

28:51Guest 2I think that people have the right to travel wherever they wanna travel and to settle wherever they wanna settle. To your point, after COVID, there was just, like, this awakening that life is too short, right?

29:07Guest 2And that we, you know, we have to step out on faith and move accordingly instead of feeling stuck, right? Because in that moment, a lot of us felt stuck, and we started reflecting on all the things we wanted to do in our life, but our life could have been taken at any point in time. And some people were thinking, "I might not never get an opportunity to do this. I might not get an opportunity to or even live and experience a different culture." You know, we have a lot of things that, we take for granted. And in that moment, I think a lot of people just really thought, like, "You know what? I need to really live life full out." And I think that's really what it's about now. Yes, people are going to come over to Ghana, and they're gonna come over to Africa, the continent as a whole, and explore more because for years, you know, we weren't shown that beauty, right?

30:05Jawad MirYeah.

30:05Guest 2We were always shown different areas…

30:08Jawad MirI know

30:08Guest 2... That were impoverished and, you know, different challenges and things of that nature. But there is a whole natural beauty and essence there, right? Like other countries as well. But for us, again, as African Americans, and we talk about going back home to the motherland where our roots are, where we're still learning some of the things that were stolen and taken from us, right? It's like atonement. It's restoration. For a lot of people. And so, going back to that place, for me, that's how I felt, and that's how I continue to feel. I feel, like, rejuvenated and restored. I felt like there was something always missing, and to just put my feet on the ground when we got off the airplane, and as you can see in that first episode, we were super excited to meet, like, the mother. And, you know, e… we were even doing something that was out of the ordinary. Like, we were actually bowing because it, in our minds, it was a honor, right?

31:09Guest 2To just be in that moment. And so we were like, "Okay, well, this is a queen mother. We should bow." Like, you know, I'm following my husband…

31:18Guest 1I kept bowing

31:18Guest 2... Because he kept bowing, and the next thing you know, I'm like this. And I'm like, you know…

31:23Guest 1I kept bowing

31:23Guest 2... When we were watching that episode, I was like, "I didn't realize that we bowed that much." It was very interesting, the things that, you know, because we're such a melting pot, being exposed to different cultures and things of that nature, how much we take on, right?

31:43Jawad MirYeah.

31:43Guest 2And then make it our own. So going back and figuring out how these things connect to us, I think is really important.

31:53Jawad MirYeah. It's, it's true. It's, it's interesting. So I have been at a different place for a while, and that may change down the road, it may not. I remember I... So I moved to Canada in 1990.

32:05Guest 2Nice.

32:05Jawad MirAnd I went to UK, so there was this small town called Bradford where most of the South Asians live. And my family was, some of my family was there, my relatives. So we spent two weeks there, and then we drove to London. And as soon as we were getting into London, I literally said, "Oh my God, I finally see a Black and a white and a Chinese guy." And I, 'cause I was so used to living in Canada, seeing all the different races, that…

32:33Guest 2Right

32:33Jawad Mir... That to me seemed awkward. However, that may change down the road. I have no idea. You know, kind of like…

32:39Guest 2Right

32:39Jawad Mir... What you were saying. But it's interesting how hu… hu… you know, your mind works, your psychology and everything, and your culture, where you belong and where you don't belong.

32:51Guest 2Right. Absolutely. I agree. Again, just being exposed to all of that.

32:56Guest 1I, yeah, that's wh… I feel the same way, man. It's like once COVID hit and it was, y… you had to think differently, you know? You didn't even know if you were gonna be here anymore. We didn't know what was gonna happen.

33:06Guest 1So when we get s… we get past that, it's like, man, I'm about to go live my life. I'm about to go do whatever, you know? And people are moving out of the country.

33:16Guest 2Yeah.

33:16Guest 1The, I mean, it's like, it's just the opposite. 'Cause people used to move into our country for, you know, for thousands, for thou… hundreds and hundreds of years. Now we're…

33:24Guest 2Yeah, looking for better opportunities than they have.

33:26Guest 1Yeah. Yes. So now you can go, you can, you can find opportunities other places…

33:29Guest 2Absolutely

33:29Guest 1... And go live other places, and it's the beauty of the world. It's the beauty of the world that God created, man. It's like…

33:35Guest 2That's right. Africa, the land of opportunity. There's more than one land of opportunity, and we're seeing that in this.

33:43Jawad MirAnd I also find life in other countries outside the Western nations, nothing to take away from Western nations, they're great, the freedom of speech and all that wonderful stuffs, you know. I find the simplicity lies in other countries where they're not chasing after objects and materialistic things.

34:01Guest 1Yes.

34:02Guest 2Right.

34:02Jawad MirYou know? I think, I think that's where we sort of, as you get older…

34:05Guest 2Yes

34:05Jawad Mir... You start seeing that, you're like, you know, "Oh, this is what life is. It's not what I'm chasing here."

34:11Guest 2That's right. And you saw that I led with that because it's in the simplicity of it all. Again, you know, we were so fast-paced in America, everything was just, "I gotta run, I gotta run. I gotta make my goals. I gotta reach my goals. I gotta build and do all these things," that we never were able to take a moment to slow down, take a deep breath, and just enjoy nature and beauty in our surroundings and our culture and customs, and we were able to just do that here in Ghana.

34:41Jawad MirYeah. Amazing.

34:41Guest 2Just to take a moment.

34:44Jawad Mir100%. Well, you know, just as we close, any advice, I mean, this is something that everybody asks to everybody, you know, in terms of, because considering what you guys have gone through in your marriage and, you know, I don't wanna go too much into it because that's your personal space. What advice would you give, both of you separately, to people who may be at a point where they're struggling a lot or beginning to struggle, or they're always, you know, in a tit for tat, not tit for tat, but just argument mode and, you know, trying to figure things out?

35:16Guest 1I think that you have, I think, s… s… to me, it's simple. You gotta get back to why you…

35:22Guest 2The why

35:23Guest 1... The why, you know, why you…

35:26Jawad MirMarried this person

35:26Guest 1... Love this person in the first…

35:28Jawad MirYeah

35:28Guest 1... Why you married this person in the first place. You know, 'cause it was beautiful. At some point, it was beautiful. You know, you're gonna go through the stuff in the middle, the meat, the da. But at the end of the day, is it worth it? And for me, ain't nothing else out here. Ain't nothing else out here.

35:46Guest 2I think what I can leave everybody with is when you're willing to grow and to learn from one another, just like a plant, you know, it needs the dirt, it needs the rain, and it needs the sunshine, right?

36:02Jawad MirYeah.

36:02Guest 2In order to grow effectively and efficiently, right? We're gonna have those rainy days in life, right? We're gonna have the dirt and having to push through those obstacles that are in our way. That's a part of being human. That's a part of, just life. And we have this expression, life be lifing, right? People go through real-life situations all the time, but how beautiful is it to be able to go through life with someone that you care for, someone that you love? Because this world is tough on your own. When you're able to help carry that load and to learn from one another and grow, that is the beautiful part of love and relationships. And so when you see that value in a relationship, even with the bickering and the arguments and the disagreements and the unbalanced moments sometimes, if you're willing to see through all of that and know that's your end goal, fight for it. Fight for what you believe in and stay true to yourself.

37:02Guest 1Just move to Africa.

37:05Jawad MirAwesome. Awesome. Thank you so much, guys. Coming From America.

37:10Guest 1Thank you so much.

37:10Guest 2Thank you, Jawad.

37:11Jawad MirComing From…

37:12Guest 2We appreciate you just, sharing with us and, you know, we want everyone to follow our journey and to stay tuned and hopefully get some inspiration from this.

37:23Jawad Mir100%. And just for the audience, Coming From America, is now streaming on HBO Max. It started on September 5th, and, I believe it's weekly episodes, so tune in. Thank you so much, guys.

37:34Guest 2Thank you.

37:35Guest 1Thank you.