Transcript of David Jolly's 5-Year Comedy and Sobriety Experiment!

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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Mic Unplugged. And today, we have a guest that is a comedic genius who has an unfiltered, solid humor and a magnetic stage presence that has been lighting up the comedy scene worldwide. Known for his quick wit and a viral hashtag that we're definitely going to get into in a moment. He's become a standout performer on the renowned live podcast, Kill Tony, and a regular at the Comedy Club, Closest to You. Get ready for a real and deep conversation with the hilarious, the unapologetic, the Unstoppable, my uncle, Mr. David Jolly. Uncle Dave, how are you doing today, brother?

Mama, we made it.

We sure did. We sure did. Hey, Uncle David, we're just going to give them the cookout conversation. You can just say David.

You can just say David. That's cool.

David giving them the cookout conversation.

For sure.

They ain't ready for this one.

They going to have to get it.

Let's go. For the world, you all got to understand my Uncle David, man. When I talk about a true comedic genius, I really mean that by every stretch of the imagination, because, Uncle David, you know this just like I know. There's a lot of funny people out there.

Just daily, you made me feel old. You are old. I ain't number 43, motherfucker. You look older than me.

I am 22 plus 24. Little Brother Dave. Just name it. There's a thing. There's a lot of people that can be funny. We talk about the cookout. Everybody has that funny uncle that can tell a good joke, have everybody laughing. But there is a big difference when you got to get on stage and people expect you to be funny and expect you to tear their stomach up. How did you master that?

It ain't no plan eat. You know what I mean? People say, Oh, I want to do this. I don't know the last time I did that regular. If I'm dating somebody, she know, Hey, I'm really dating comedy. You're going to be here for a minute, but I mean, how long are you going to really last? Because everything Every single day I go do comedy. I got here early the night because I just want to see the city of DC, and I'm going to go find somewhere to get up at the night. People want to do stuff, but then some people want to dedicate the rest of their lives to it. You know what I mean? You can't make it. You can't be halfway in or halfway out. Hey, man, I got a show. I got this big opportunity for you. And you're like, Well, I got to go to the movies with my lady. Ain't no girlfriend no more. Ain't no what about that. Not if you want to do it for real. All of that is not to do. The only thing you're married to is comity.

See you. Here's what I learned from you, and this is something you taught me, man, and I mean this genuinely. A lot of people wait for an opportunity or they wait for opportunity to not. What David Jolly said is, damn it, I am the opportunity. You make everything happen because to your point, there is no plan B. You are the opportunity, man. How do you help other people understand that? Because most people don't get it. They sit around and wait for somebody to give them something or wait for that phone call. It's 2024, 2025. Those phones don't ring like that no more.

I mean, if I'm cool with you, I'm going to cuss you out I got it. That's the way people understand. They don't understand being nice no more. If I can't talk to you like a man and we talk to each other like that, then you're just like an associate. If I messaged you then, Hey, man, I want to see you win, or let's just leave each other alone. You know what I mean? Because you can't tell me that you want to do something, and then you're going to sit and complain about what could happen. Are we either going to make a solution for it or you can lay in your own misery?

Absolutely.

You got to find a solution or Somebody told me when I first started doing comedy, my boy Ross McCoy, I was like, So what I do after this? He was like, You bomb a lot. You're going to go to every mic no matter what it feel like. You're just going to keep going. People say they go up a lot, but you have no idea. You know what I'm saying? Like, literally living and live this. That's it. Ain't nothing else. You know? I just keep going. You just got to keep going, especially when they look crazy. That means something good coming around the corner.

And that's the essence of life, too. Not even just in the comedy world, but just in life. I tell people all the time, man, their success just on the other side. Where people fail is something good coming around the corner. Just stop. Woe with me, the world is coming. The world is crashing on everybody, man. Everybody going through something. It's those that keep going that see success happen.

And nobody want to hear your misery, your sad sob story. When I ended up in Austin, Cam called me when he first moved there. This was before Kill Tony. This was before all of that. He called me and I was like, Man, how are you liking it? Then he was like, Man, I love it out here. Man, I'm murdering these people. I'm really the I'm going out here. So I was like, Man, let me check this out. My birthday was that next week. So I was like, I'm going to get a flight out there. He was like, Man, you ain't coming out here. So I caught a flight, got there that Saturday. I did an open mic that Sunday for Community mothership, and I got ride it back. So at that point, I was like, Oh, this is the way in. At that point, right then, I was like, This is my opportunity right here. I got to make the best of this opportunity. And then I kept coming, flying back and forth to come see and to just get up. Then the kill Tony thing happened when I was there, and it just went like everything was off.

But you would think that's when it get easy, but that's when it get harder because everybody's shooting at you then. Everybody want to bury you when you're on stage. But that's where the gang violence thing come from. If we on stage, say we on the same show and I deal with you, I'm like, Gang violence? Hey, it's for the kid real. I'm about to go over here and destroy these people, you better be able to follow it. It's just iron sharpening iron. You know what I mean? Just creating masters. It depends on where you look at it. I believe in just murdering. Yeah, straight up.

For all my corporate listeners, he's not talking about physically murder and calm down.

I can curse. Yeah, I should have. I shouldn't act.

You can say any and everything you This is your world.

I still try to not get too crazy. Try to be somewhat professional.

Everything is everything, man. How did David Jolly get started? That essence. On Mic Unplug, we like to talk about your because, that thing that really gets you going, your real purpose, your real mission. What got David Jolly started in the game?

I got a buddy of mine named D-Rug. He a rapper. He's a comedian. One of my best friends. He was about to do a show with these people called Tom and Dan and my boy Ross McCoy. It was a local comedy show. I never did a comedy, but I was always funny. I never knew where to start at. I never knew about none of that because I'm from Orlando. I found out once I went to the show and I asked him beforehand, Hey, can I get a little time? And Ross was like, No, man, it's a real show. We're not letting you up here. You're not going to come stink my stage up. But then when I got there, I had prepared. Maybe he might let me on. I never really wrote any jokes. I just wrote down some ideas. When I got there, he was like, You know what? Just get up. So I got up. It was really good. I asked him what to do next. And he said, You live. This is your new life. You do this every day. And that's what I did. I just stayed at it. I stayed at it.

I stayed at it. I stayed at it every day. Horrible mics. There's five people in there. Sometimes they'll be my favorite mics. I still go to the mics. I'll go from a show at the mothership and go to the creaking cave at midnight just to see if this new material works because I'm not going to do it at the mothership yet. So it's just going. It's just go and go and go and go and go. And it's just everything been falling into place. This ain't no process that's happened overnight. I'm at 8:00. But I always knew this was going to happen. I don't know if it sounds arrogant or however it sounds, but in my brain, when I tell myself I'm going to do something, it ain't no maybes. It ain't none of that. I don't use, though, that verbiage.

You wouldn't have got on the first mic if you didn't see yourself doing it.

Yeah, exactly. And that's what I was drinking. I don't drink anymore. I I've been almost 18 months done. When I went back home and I was still like, Hey, I'm happy. I was on kill Tony. Everybody know who I am. And I was like, Man, lock in. It's time to go. This is going to be the next step where your mama I ain't got to work no more. You know what I mean? Lock in, it's time to go. Forget all that drinking and all that nonsense. Because I just work in hospitality, so it was second nature to drink. Yeah, I had a drinking problem, though. I was like, real, I call Real good. Like a real one. I waited tables for a long time. I worked in a construction-type joint. I used to deliver drywall, operate heavy machinery, all stuff. Just like a normal dude.

What was the key to sobriety? And then the important part, the key to maintaining it, because you live in a world where that's what's going on. You work in an environment where they're giving the vice right in front of you.

I really don't live in this world, though, mentally. I'm usually not even here. I could be in the same room with someone and know nothing about what's going on. I'd be so much your side of my mind, but put it on the next step. You know what I mean? That's just how I operate. I got to be doing something towards my goal because ain't nobody going to give it to you, so I'm going to just go take it. That's how I look.

For you, it was literally, this is my goal, this is my mission. In order to get to where I'm trying to go, drinking has to stop. That's pretty much not worse.

It's always been fun in my life until it got to the point where it was like, now this in front of you, and you know this is a ruin you because you got to do this all the time now. You got to always be thinking about this. It's going to be people that come at you on the internet. It's going to be people that just try to... You got to have a sense to know, All right, let me just leave this situation alone. Because if you're drinking, you might flip out on somebody. What if you beat somebody up? Now, you don't nobody want to work with you. When I was drinking, I wasn't an angry junker. I was probably the happiest guy in the world. But at the same time, it wasn't fulfilling to 100% to get where I needed to be mentally. So whatever that was, I had to cut it off. I woke up July fifth and I said, I ain't drinking no more because I got three to the drunk on the four. So I said, You know what? I'm done. I didn't necessarily have the shakes and all of that. But in the back of my mind, sublimitly, I was like, I mean, subconsciously, I was All right, you know you can't drink.

And in my everyday process, I was like, Okay, let me get a drink. So I would have to say, No, what are you doing? You know what I mean? Because subconsciously, that's just what I did.

Yeah. And what I'm hearing, David, is you saying you also realize you are becoming a brand. A lot of people think that a brand is a logo. No, no, no, no. In 2024, 2025, you are a brand. In everything around your brand, a Especially, again, your own national stages, cameras everywhere. Everybody in the audience has a cell phone now. Everybody on the sidewalk has a cell phone. People in the car beside you got a phone. That phone is 24/7 live media now. People, you got to realize you are a brand, and you have mastered that. David Jolly is a brand.

What I like about it is, especially being a part of the Kill Tony universe, is I'm never worried about getting canceled. Even Most of my subject matter is not counselable. It's just from a different point of view. I got all jokes. I got a dito. I got everything you name, but you can't be offended by it. I got a trans joke where I tell, and if it's homosexual people, it's been a trans woman. She was like, 6, 8, 240 in Atlanta. I'm on stage and I'm thinking to myself, If you think I'm not telling this trans joke, you out of your mind. Then she We laughed at it hysterically. It was like, Man, that's a good joke. I just want to be that person that bring back real kindly. Let people say what they want to say. How come most of the people offended, not even the people who we're talking about? I ain't seen that one Puerto Rican say nothing or question nothing when that situation happened with Tony. Not one. Not one person. I don't really want to make it a race issue. Maybe it's just a cultural issue. But in that case, it's a race.

We care about everybody else and everybody else's feelings, except we don't want to come home and talk about the real.

Black people, we want to talk about everybody else like jokes, or everybody else could get it. Let one white dude say, You ate some fried chicken. Oh, you're racist. No, that's prejudice. It's a big difference. It's a stereotype that we use to make jokes about other people, but we might be worse than Jewish people. In the sense of like, Black, you can't say nothing about us, but we can say everything about everybody else. I don't care about no jokes. If it's funny, if it ain't funny, I'm not going to laugh. If it's funny, I'm going to laugh.

I agree.

But we always got a defense mechanism up. Everybody's against us unless we're with our own people.

Yeah. And I'd say even other races the same way, right? I think the The world, to your point, needs to understand the difference between what's prejudiced- To what's- Exactly.

We need to bring back Archie Bunker and George Jefferson. We need a show like that right now so we can realize, Hey, man, my dad said something like this. He don't mean nothing but Archie Bunker was just dumb. George Jefferson was just dumb. But that's the way that America thought. But we was okay with that because we still got to live together.

And you're always going to have extremes, You're always going to have extremes, right? You're always going to have that extreme that, yeah, they do hate, insert whatever the race is. They do hate, insert whatever the gender or non-gender is. You have the extremists, but that's the minority. That really is the minority.

That hate came from a not knowing. It came from the same thing. I'm 43 years old. You got to do this. If I never did that, I would have been started this journey way earlier. But the thing is, if I would have started it earlier, I would have died. Because I'm pretty sure I would have got really famous and just did something. That would be my norm to be that way. To just be like, no understanding. I'm 30 years old. I got a couple of hundred million dollars. I knew this process had to happen, but it happened when it needed to happen.

You know what I mean?

Because our parents told us, go to school, get a good job. I could never really work for nobody. I'll be working with somebody and it'll go all for a while, and as soon as they get comfortable where they think they're going to say whatever they want to. I've never had a boss in my life. You know what I mean? I've worked for companies, but anytime you even insinuate that you got some type of boss complex, I'm going to straighten you right there. First of all, I don't have a boss. Second of all, I work for this company, and your title is this for this company, right? So you work for them, too, right? People hated me, man. It was just everything had to happen how it had to happen because I know I can't work for nobody. I wake up and bless you out until you don't talk to me no more. I might be, I ain't sure.

I love it, man. So So you got into the comedy game. One of the questions I wanted to ask you specifically, again, the genius of David Jolly, from telling a joke to actually writing a bit, what What was that transformation like from just, again, we're at the cookout. Everybody can be funny and tell a joke. But when you got to be on stage for 10, 15, 30 minutes when you're David Jolly doing 45 in an hour, you got to be able to write a little bit, too, and connect the dots. What was that journey and transformation like for you?

It wasn't ever hard because I got a buddy of mine named Carmen Malone that gave me this book called The Comedy Bible. So I mean, premise, set up, punchline. I I keep that in my mind, but a lot of the times I don't even write like that. That's just a basic formula to go off of. In my mind, like a computer. I need some type of formula. Sometimes I could come with nothing. Sometimes I might just say something funny, and I just take it to the stage and I rip on it a little bit. Then I try to build a structure off of that. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and I just write out a whole joke word for word, and I cut out 80% of it, and that actually works. I mean, but everybody has their own style of writing, and you know what I mean? The more and more, the blessing that I've had since being in Austin is getting to be around comics that have been successful on this level for so much time and just the genuine love for comedy and just good people that they are. The good people that they are, they'll be like, Hey, man, you ever thought about this?

Or like, Have you got any questions or, Hey, let's go on the road. When Cam started doing comedy, because I'm his mentor, I really don't help people that because I don't ever want to take away from his shine. But when he started doing it and the drive that he had, that brought back another level of hunger for me. I was like, Okay, let's go. You know what I mean? Because it was just like, it was bet because most of the people in Orlando, they're hobbyists. They're competing Competing with each other. I'm not competing with nobody but yesterday, me. You know what I mean? Yes, sir. We all on the same team. I ain't competing with you. What am I competing with you for? You know what I mean? You're in the main place, I mean, why would I compete with you when you could tell me nothing about the next level. That's it. It all depends on the seriousness. What are you seeing something? I wouldn't go and start playing semi-Pro football because I don't think I could do it. I don't love I don't talk about that much. You know what I'm saying? It's just about focus, man.

Focus, locking in. Focus, focus, focus. That will take you so far in life. I'm not mad at the things as the way I was raised and the way our elders told us how we should go about the next level, even though I wish I knew a little bit about this here and stuff that I'm finding out about now as to why this guy never worked in his life because he worked for himself. You know what I mean? It is what it You mastered the storytelling, and then that led you to the world that you're in now.

I know the story of David Jolly isn't even done, because we're about to see so many amazing things that are happening. I'm putting it in the universe because I believe in you that much, man. Getting to kill Tony, how did that happen?

Well, Cam got pulled out of the bucket. He got pulled out of the bucket and then just everything just went crazy. I went back to Orlando. And when I came back, because I was coming back to do spots at the mothership because I was in a Adam Egan was like, Hey, man, whenever you're in town, come and do spots. I was flying back once a month, sometimes twice a month. The only reason why I was still in Orlando was because I had a lease and my son hadn't graduated from high school yet. As soon as he graduated, I was gone. What was the question again?

Kill Tony. Yeah. Getting to kill Tony.

It was great, man. Everybody in there is just good people. Just when we came and then it... I just got an opportunity. That's what I'm going to say. I ain't going to get too much in there, but it was great. The opportunity that was presented to myself, I just did what I had to do.

Love it.

They love it. It's great, man. If If there's any comics watching this, I tell you, come to Austin, get away from your local scene because that same guy has been doing that same thing for 25 years. He may want you to see the scene, he may not want you to succeed. Some people just get to a point where they've been doing it All the long, they're just angry. You got to get away from them people because they don't have no vision no more. They're just ready to die. They're just going by the pace of day by day, just day by day. If you know you make it get away from your hometown. It's not knocking your hometown because the people in Orlando love me. I'm born and raised there. I lived in Tampa for a while, Tallahassee, but I'm a Florida boy. The people in my city love me, but it's the people that's in your same profession that say that they love you, but then they really don't show it. I'm not mad at them. It might sound crazy, but even when I first started, I was looking past Orlando. I never even I never felt like I was a local comet.

I never felt like... I have no beef with nobody. I'm cool with everybody, but I just didn't want to follow you all's rules. I was going to do it my way because A unique one of one. Yeah. I had a little traction going on, building followers, doing these stupid videos that were like, I know you fucking lie, and it'll be like a crazy motherfucker, and it'll be me talking about them. Those were going viral. But then once, This Austin situation turned out, and it just... It's getting crazy, but in a good way.

So let's go back to that viral moment, right? I teased it in the opener with the hashtag, How did you come up with that freaking concept, dude? Now you're seeing other people starting to do the style that you did, right? Because nobody was doing the videos the way that you were. Now it's become a thing, right?

You mean with, I know you fucking lie. Well, a lot of people make them now, and I don't ever say nothing. I just, whatever. You know how you used to be some crazy stuff? Then it'll cut away, and then it'll be me like, I know you fucking lying. Look at this. I just had to find something that would work because I know just the old-school way of moving to New York and moving to LA, and then you got to meet these people. I want to go around everybody. I don't want to have to... I'm going to do the work. The work is going to speak for itself, but I don't want how you feel about me to dictate my career.

Yeah. No, I'll say it differently. You wanted to work, you just didn't have to stand in line. You have to stand in line.

Somebody don't like me, and then they try to push somebody back. I've seen it happen. I've seen it happen in comedy scenes where one person don't like this person, and they'll just brush you off. It's like that person might not even bother nobody. They just don't like that they're quiet. That's crazy.

But the hashtag and the video viral is crazy. Still, some of my favorite things today. I'll go back and watch something you did eight, nine months ago because it's still relevant now, man.

The first time I got on Keel Tony, I think I only watched that one time. I couldn't watch it. It was too cringe for me. I It was too much because that wasn't me. It was me at the time, and I'm a very fun, outgoing guy. Anybody know that I say whatever, I don't really care about your feelings because you forced to this point, but that was just real. I was sloppy drunk that day. I was sloppy.

But still funny. You were still you. You were still you. I I give you that.

Yeah, I actually fell asleep next door. They were like, Where's Jolly? Where's Jolly? I'm at the bar bar. They woke me up. I'm running in the rain, really stumbling in the rain, not really running, but Then the rest was history. They say, You're on. My brains just say, Showtime.

Showtime.

Yes, sir.

Hey, man, you blessed us with Tom. I know you're busy I want to go rapid fire with David Jolly.

Let's show.

All right. From Orlando, what's your favorite restaurant food spot in Orlando?

That's a good question. Flavors. My boy Jolly Noe has got a company called Flavors. Yeah, I love him. Oh, you know about Flavors?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah. He cook it all, man. Good food, real good food.

Yeah. Your favorite sports team, professional or college. Who was David's team?

Orlando Magic. I said sports team, not JV basketball. It's for you and Nashana Harness. Fuck Nashana Harness. Ours record better than you all. You all trash. You a Harness fan?

No, I'm a Laker fan.

I knew it. Well, we better than the Lakers, too. You all trash. You're a Laker fan?

This year, right now, right now, I can't even argue with you. I got to give it to you.

I mean, but I respect LeBron. I'm a LeBron fan. I like the fact that he carry himself as a man. Everybody hate him, and he don't have any scandals. He don't have nothing. You don't even have a reason to not like the man, but that comes with Fame, so whatever.

Yeah. No, I'm there. Jordan is my goat, though. Jordan and Kenny Anderson are my guys. He was a bad man. Kenny Anderson is one of my mentors. We saw every morning he sends me I got a message.

You played ball, too?

In high school.

Oh, yeah. I played basketball. I played basketball, football, and baseball. And in all three sports, I wrote the bench. They said, I'll pay me a scholarship for riding the bench. I say, No, man, I'm not going to take this one, man. It's all right.

There it is.

Then you got the Bucaneers. I'm from Florida, so you got to go with the Bucs, not with the office.

I don't like any of those teams.

What are you going to say? The Cowboys?

I hate them, too. So I'm going to tell you the team, but I'm going to tell you it's because of family first. My uncle is in the Hall of Fame for the New England Patriots. So I was born a Patriot fan. I wasn't some '80, and then I started becoming a fan. When they were terrible- See, I was played back then.

Yeah, I remember. The '80s.

Yeah, that's when my uncle was there.

I had one good year in the '80s, then they almost go to the Super Bowl.

They went to the Super Bowl in '85 and lost to the bears. Walter Payton ran for eight million yards and didn't score a touch on that game.

You from South Carolina? Yes, sir. Oh, born and raised right there.

Yes, sir.

I think I might be... I'm waiting on Leon Keir to hit me back, but I'll be at the Greenville South In Greenville Comedy Zone, hopefully April sixth, I believe.

Oh, I'll be there and we'll sell it out. I'll promote it.

Will we get off? Send me your number. I don't have your number. I hit you up all the You're a good dude, bro. You feel me?

Yes, sir.

You got to have strong Black men who focus on the same thing because it's a race issue, but it's always a race issue.

There it is.

Some of us can't change our minds to get away from stuff, from what we just traditionally been given. It is what it is, but we'll break those cursors.

Yes, sir. All right, last question for David or second to last question. Your top three favorite comedians of all time.

Cam Patterson, David Jolly, and Kim Miller. Love it.

Oh, yeah.

They're my- Love it. They're my favorite 3L.

Yeah, and Cam is a beast. For those who don't know Cam, Cam is a beast.

Yeah. He talk about me a lot on the podcast. I like it. I just don't ever want to get in the way of his shine, killing it right now. That's who I'm up here with now. Either I'm doing my headlining dates, Killers of Kill, Tony dates, or I just come with Cam on the road. I don't have a weekend off until January 23rd, and I'm probably going to try to fill that calendar. I don't like sitting down. I'd rather be on the road.

Yeah. For those listening and watching, David is coming to a city near you. I know I'm going to Boston next weekend, and then you're in Boston two weekends after So I'm going to let everybody know in Boston, when I'm up there next weekend to make sure that they go check you out.

That's crazy. You're going to be there next weekend?

Yeah.

Yes. Send me your number because we're going to be at Lads, Boston, anyway. We came. Okay. So if you want some tickets or just come kick it, yeah.

Yeah, we'll make that happen all day.

I like Austin cool, man.

Yeah. I love Boston.

Yeah, it's dope because I got to do Boston, and I do Providence right the day before that.

Okay.

Yeah, private is that's a real town.

Yeah. In Rhode Island? Yeah, it's wild.

Yeah, it's pretty. It's different over there. Don't get the wrong idea about all that stuff up there. They get it down over there.

Yes, Sure. Last question, where can people follow and find you?

Instagram is Mr. D. Jolly, or go to unclejolly. Com. I got everything going on in my life as far as show dates and sitting near you. But Mr. D. Jolly, follow that because I need some more followers, man.

All right. It's going to be in the show notes and description everywhere. Everybody go follow David. I promise you, there are moments in the day where you just need a laugh or two or three. David is going to give it to you every day. He's not even trying to give it to you. He's just going to be himself, and you're going to say, damn, I needed that.

Yeah. It's funny to where when people can laugh at That's what I want to bring back. Nothing is off limit. Back in the days, at the cookout, if you had a cousin that was a little special, what's your auntie say? Sit your slow ass down, my boy. Sit your retarded Yes, though. You've been jumping around on your all goddamn date. You know what I mean?

Yes, sir. For real. I love it. Dave, I appreciate you taking some time, brother. You mean the world to me. Can't wait to connect in person and break bread and just hang out, man.

I appreciate that making much success to you in your podcast. I'm not hoping. It's going to go to the stars.

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir. For the moon, man. We got to keep shooting.

Yes, sir. For all the listeners and viewers, remember, your because is your superpower. Go unleash it.

Thank you for tuning in to Mic Unplug. Keep pushing your limits, embracing your purpose, and chasing greatness. Until next time, stay Unstoppable.