Transcript of Rudy Rush Uncensored: Lessons from 30+ Years

Hey, what's up? Welcome to the Power and the Punch Line. This is where the power gets honest and the punchline actually means something. We talk leadership, culture, influence, and real life. No fluff, no filters. I'm Rudy Rush. Let's get powerful.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are here live and in person together.

Yeah. Yeah.

Punchline.

He thought we were the same person. No.

Somebody did say that.

Somebody said that. I thought it was You know what? I would love to be mistaken for you when she get that star treatment. You know what I mean? You're not ready for that though. Tau here right there.

All day.

Every day.

So today's episode is going to be different. It's going to be special. Today's episode, we're going to talk about a prodigy. I'm talking about before social media, even right before the internet, someone rose the stardom. Someone had a story to tell. I'm talking about from Def Jam to the red carpet show, Tom and holiday. We're going to talk about the journey of my guy, my co-host, Mr. Rudy Rush.

When he said prodigy, I thought you was talking about like, Kobe, or Kevin Garnett, or something like that. Lebron is too young. He was here during social media. But no, Definitely, man. It's been an interesting 30 years plus in entertainment, and I'm excited about talking about it a little bit. This is the first time I've actually opened up here and there about some things, but being on this show with you. I feel like I'm at home, so I can stretch out a little bit, talk about some things that maybe bothered me or I don't know, because I don't know what you're going to ask me.

So this was like, bear me.

Yeah, you know what? And I've been, so I like that.

Yeah.

Without the bill afterwards.

The first thing I'm going to correct you on, though, you talked about 30. I mean, let's let the people know you're 75.

41 and a half. You know what I mean? But no. A lot of people think I'm a lot older Then- Let's start this there in a session, man. Yeah.

You came up when comedy was a different game.

It was.

I'm not talking about the internet comedians who I'm not bashing. I'm just saying it was a different game, right? You came up when Def Jam was a proving ground, bro. We all know some of the stories behind the scenes of some people that didn't make it on the HBO version. We know some people that had to go before Bernie Mac. We know some people that had to come after Rudy Rush. I know. I read that story, too. Talk to us, man, the prodigy. Talk to us about doing it first in New York City before you could even get to Def Jam. Talk to us about the first stage, Rudy Rush and So it was crazy because I worked at a law firm right out of high school.

I got a job in Midtown Manhattan at this place called the Buff. It's a longer name than that. And it was cool. I started out in the mail room, you know what I mean? And quickly, but then In three months, I got a promotion to the reproduction Department. So I was on a fast track, making my name in the building, just enough to where people were like, Hey, they're hiring upstairs. Let's do this. So by the time I left, I just backtrack from that. I was in the purchasing Department, and they were trying to get me into a paralegal program and things like that. So I thought maybe law would be because I had all of the connections that I needed to go there. I didn't want to be a lawyer, but I felt like, Hey, this is a little comfortable and safe because I had some connections. But what happened, a young lady named Diana Lisi, and she's a big entertainment fan, Jewish lady that lived in New York. And she was, just to give you an idea, Stanley Tucci just became an actor, just got on the scene and she was like, Stanley Tucci is going to be this big actor.

And I feel like you have the same type of makeup. So she sent me on an audition. And the audition, surprisingly, was for the In Living Color. Jim Carrey, Jamie Fox, those guys were leaving, going off and doing major television and film projects. And what happened was they wanted to keep it going. Fox wanted to keep it going. And you have to hear Marlin tell the story about how they were taking the show away from the lanes and still trying to do it, and everybody quit. So I was part of that group of people that were auditioning for those slots. I got about three or four callbacks, which went very well. They had you bring three... You have to do three or four different characters, original. And they kept calling me back. Then they would say, We're not going to do the show anymore. So a guy from the job was like, Hey, you should do comedy. My buddy Reggie Simmons, older guy, about maybe eight years older than me. So like I said, I was always the youngest in the circles that I've been in. He signed me up, New York Comedy Club, May 12, 1993.

I know the date.

I know the date. That's my anniversary. It's so funny. You had to bring three paying customers to the New York Comedy Club. My family's fairly small, but about 10 people showed up. For every person you bring, you get $2 back as an incentive. I was like, I can break 10 people and get something. I could find out if I'm funny, get 20 bucks, take I was back on the train to Brooklyn. I'm from Arnold, but I was living in Brooklyn when I got out of high school. And not only did 10 people show up from my family, about 80 plus, 90 something people total came the first night. Some people from the job brought their friends in. This It was funny. So it was so amazing that that many people really wanted to see me on stage for the first time. And the funny thing was this is an amateur show. So you already know everybody's either bad or okay. So my confidence after Every person is growing. This dude named Billy, who still remains nameless in the annals of stand-up comedy, he comes by the club. You know how come it's just like not doing anything, he's wondering by the club.

He was like, What's going on? They're like, This kid isn't there. He's got this great audience. They're lovely. But he was like, Man, I got to get on that stage. Just like I would if I came somewhere and was like, Yo, when I get five minutes, this is nice. They were like, You got to ask the kid because they were saving me for last. Let me tell you something. This guy comes to me, he's like, Hey, mind if I He looked like a bomb off the street. He had the big, the mustache, the hair comes up. He had that. You know what I'm saying? His teeth wasn't the greatest. I mean, Billy was a great dude. But listen, I looked him up and down. I said, Yo, I'm not yourself out. At that time, I didn't know who he was. I'm going to find out Billy was the headliner for Friday Nights. Killed it. I mean, turned the place upside down. My mother's taking a blast off, wiping her face, everybody him. So let me end the story by saying, The Night was the biggest success of my career, up until the point where things started happening, of course, on a national and on a higher level.

But at that time, my career could have been over because who's going to follow that? In this day and age, there are comments who have 20, 40 years under their belt couldn't follow that. It was that good. But what I did was I got my first lesson in comedy. I read the room. I felt what I was feeling in my heart, honestly. And I came up there to use the language that this is a clean show. But at the same time, I said, This is my first time in the stage. You all put me on that. That am I for? And the room exploded. You got this younger kid saying that. And then laughed. I swear for at least it felt like 10 minutes because of the fact that that's what they were feeling, too. So that was the beginning of Rudy Rush. Actually, Rudy McCalum is my real name. So Rudy Rush, a month later, became the name.

So let's go there, man. Let's talk about the name because Jamie Fox, shout out to Fox, is Eric Bisham. And he said, in order to get booked, consistently, he needed a neutral name because Jamie Fox was guaranteed to get on the roster list, and Eric Bishop sometimes wouldn't make it, sometimes wouldn't. So was that Rudy Rush? Or was it the hype?

No.

You were super star to make it?

I was feeling it. The first month, I was good. I was really good with the club. About 40 people each week would come and check me out because the word was buzzing around the office and in my social circles. People would come see me, but it was like, Give it up for Rudy McAllum. It just wasn't Even as I was coming to the stage, I just wasn't feeling anything. When I was younger, I played basketball in the city of New York, and I was very popular for a young guy. Was one of the top 14 and under players when I played and went to high school in Charleston. South Carolina after that. I had to leave for that. But before then, I was one of the top players in the city. When I was younger, the older guys used to call me. They was like, Hey, little guys. Play with them. And they'd be like, What's your name? I'm like, Rudy. They were like, Rudy Rush. I write it in my notebook. That was a little tag there in I had when I was scribbling my notebooks at school. And when I started doing comedy after a while, when I was hearing that Rooney McAllen name, which I love, but it wasn't dancing for me.

And I was like, I want you be this is Rudy Rush. It was almost like a superhero story. I always had the cape and I didn't know what it was for. And then I put that on. And then we would just... Any time you would go somewhere, you could say, Oh, man, my mom was dead. He didn't even find me Rudy Rush. I'm going to be like, Oh, man, it sounds familiar. He just rolled off the top. And I became Rudy Rush that day.

That's amazing, man. So did mom and dad change their name?

No. My mother actually likes the name because one of my friends, in fact, called her Mama Rush. She likes that. It sounded cool. My father had an issue with it, actually, because as a man who has children, of course, that's your lineage, that's your legacy. And he was like, well. And he gave me a couple of examples of what else I could do. The name I would have had if they didn't have the name already, would have been Rudy Mag. And of course, who would have had him? So I was like, Fuck, now burn. And so I can't do Rudy Mag, so it's got to be Rudy Rush. And he was like, And my initials were Ram. So I tried to do something with that, but Rudy Rush was the stick.

And that's who you were.

Yeah, that's who I am.

Olden child.

Olden child. Yeah, man.

Everybody thought it was an Eddie Murphy movie, but it was not. One of the things I've always wanted to ask you, and I have some comedian friends who were in that era, right? Lydie Spears asked him this question. We all know barbecue, cooked out, old uncle that's just fun.

Yeah.

That's not the same as walking on the stage, though. When people... I I love comedy shows, right? I feel like I'm a comedy connoisseur. And it never fails. You go to comedy shows, comedy clubs, and you see a group of people that's just their arms folded. But you got to work for a laugh. It's like, you make money to be here to be upset. So when you walk on stage, it's not cookout funny, right? Cookout funny, you can make everybody laugh. You can hit some one-liners. You can hold court for a couple of minutes, and it's silly, it's funny. But on stage, man, when you got 10, 15, 30, 45, and you got to keep it rolling. Talk to us about that difference of cook out funny and putting in the work.

And I tell young comics because I teach some young comics, the ropes about stand up and people interested, even if you're older and you want to get into it. I'm like, Everything that you have done around your friends, all the inside jokes and all those other good things, it's funny, but it's not for the stage. I mean, once in a while, you can make something translate. But like you said, there's a million different people from a million different places with a million different personalities, and you want to make them all be on it. So it's very tough. So a lot of this stuff... Okay, I'll tell you, Ron Hillier, this one's for you, my high school buddy. We used to be in French class and a few other classes. And we had this little thing, this character I created called Pumpernickle Bread. We could have made a cartoon and made some money off of it nowadays, but it was like, Hey, Pumpernickle. It was the funniest thing to us. And we let him be crying. But if I came on stage and said Pumpernickle Bread, people would be like, Get your Pumpernickle bread. Get out of here.

You know what I mean? So it's like things like that. You cannot bring those things on a stage. So there's a lot of things that I have fun with my cousin who's one of his best friends. We had a lot of inside jokes or jokes that we created that just couldn't translate to the stage. To your point, you cannot be funny. Well, let me take that back because there are some artists that come and they bring that. You know what I'm saying? I think Tracy Morgan is someone who comes the closest to being as raw and animating on stage because you give that vibe. Like, he's just talking off the top of his dome. There was another one, a gentleman who passed away when he was in the accident with Tracy, Uncle Jimmy Matt, getting my first road gig, and he got the name really fit him because he was Uncle Jimmy Mac. He was anybody's uncle. So you had some comics, but the closest I've seen is maybe Robin Harris and Bernie Mac. They had that. I don't give a... I'm an authority figure in the family. I was a major You know what I mean?

They had those essences. But for the most part, you're right. It's a different ball game from the barbecue to big stage. Yes, sir.

So let's talk about Def County. I think for everybody that is watching, if you're listening to this, we don't connect if you didn't watch Def Jam. If you didn't sleep and watch Def Jam, you should go, I'm 13, 14. I'm hearing that in the south. I got to go to Churps tomorrow. We'll talk about What it was like, one, to audition, if it was an audition, you were the golden child. Russell probably just was like, Hey, Rudy, come on through. You probably just got yes for it.

No.

Talk to us about what that's like behind the scenes for people that go now.

So first of all, people need to know this. Def Jam, before the Shapel show, before Friends, before any show, Seinfeld, any show that you think is important. Def Jam, I don't believe since Def Jam, there's been an appointment set show where people would wait till after Def Jam to go have a nightlife on Friday evening. They would wait for Def Comedy Jam to come on, and they would go out after that and be up in the club talk about, Did you see? Did you see? So that's the big impact that the Def Jam machine made. So getting there, though, for me was quite different. My mentor got at a barbecue, and she ran, branded on her son who's done this little stunt at this Comedy Club in New York. And he's like, Well, let me see how good he is. I live out of New Jersey. I want to take him to the Peppermint Lounge, which when you say Peppermint, you think sweet little candy and people like, and I'm killing the New York Comedy Club, son. Take me to the Peppermint Lounge. We go to the Peppermint Lounge. It's about maybe 400 people in Newark, New Jersey.

I think it was East Orange, New Jersey, which is worse than Bricks City. Tell it. It was packed. I'm telling about every thug, gangsta, girl in that city and town. Queen Latifah was in there. Now, she was famous, too, at the time. She wasn't the Queen Latifa that she had said. She was rap Queen Latifa famous down. Let me tell you something. It wasn't a good night. This guy brought me out to pick me up from the Trade Station in Jersey. I was supposed to stay at his place. You know I'm saying? Let me tell you something. I bombed terribly, but I got saved because Queen Latifa came over and she saw something in me to make her come over and say... And I mean this. I actually worked for her later on on her talk show, The First One. But she was like, You know what? You got attacked. You were so good. And you were just a baby. She just touched me out of my face. Yeah, I could sue you for that.

No, she touched me out of my face. He said you could sue him.

No, she was really sweet. She touched me out of my face like she was my big sister, something like And honestly, at the time, I was hurt. And the dude left me there. The dude who brought me there, he just was like, Oh, he ain't going to make it. You know what I mean? But anyway, long story short, I suffered through that night. But just to show you, I started comedy when I was 19, and I made Def Jam when I was on Def Jam when I was 21. And in between that, I had an opportunity to do when I was 20. But shout out to Bob Sundin, who is one of the producers of the show. Very pivotal picking who is the next to ascend to the throne. So everybody who had a chance to be on Def Jam, pretty much have to thank for it. And also they have the Peppermint Lounge because that was the audition spot. He and Tina Graham, we get together and say, Hey, these comics are good, and they're going to be on the next season. So the first time that I did it the year before, I was able to do it.

I felt I was ready, but he said, No, you know what? I don't think you're ready. I was disappointed But he gave me a laminate, a more access laminate that everyone didn't receive.

You were the gold new child, right?

He gave it to me. He said, walk around, get in there. And I knew a few comments like Monique and a few others because I've been doing comedy for a little while. So I took it in. And I'm telling you, it was unreal experience, much like you going from high school to college and the shift between high school football and college football. It really was like that. I was playing in the majors, but not on the level where Bernie's there, Cedric's there. Steve just walked out on- Everybody on scholarship. Everybody on scholarship. Everybody on scholarship. Everybody on scholarship. Everybody on scholarship. Everybody on scholarship. Yeah, your two brothers instead, bro. All of that. I'm telling you, I was just like, I wasn't ready, but I'm in here. I'm in the mix. It made me prepare for the following year. And yes, the following year, boom, God was 11. I was there myself and a few other younger comments in there first time. We just took the world by storm. It was a great time. And young guns. Yeah. And young guns. Yeah. It was cool. It was cool.

What was your favorite moment of Def Jenna? I got to imagine just the hype. You got Kid Capri up there. You get a engine deuce, you come out. You can't you can't rehearse that. You can't rehearse that adrenaline.

Yeah, no, you can't.

Oh, crap. Can I remember Mike? You probably remember the first one.

Yeah.

What's the second joke.

What was that like? So I had a conversation once again with Bob something not too long ago. And I'm going to tell everybody this. What people don't understand, energy is energy. It's almost like the JV in the Varsity game. And I use a lot of sports analogies, so you got to excuse me. But the JV game, it's a little light in the stands. Energy is a little low. Then you got the girls basketball game, the Varsity Girls, and then you got Varsity Boys. It's like JV Girls, JV Boys. It's a builder. And so for us, with Def Jam, it was the same thing because you had afternoon shows. So the first taping was at 2: 00 or 3: 00 in the afternoon. Then you have a 7: 00, then you had the 10: 00. So just think about this on a Thursday afternoon or Wednesday afternoon, 3: 00, sun still shining, people still walking in Manhattan. It's the busiest day, time of the day, and people are walking in there to see Def Comedy Jam, and it's not nighttime. You know what I'm saying? There's no drinks being served. So I give that backstory to say I did Def Comedy Jam at 3: 00 in the afternoon.

And it wasn't until later in my career that I got a few other spots just like that because you have to be elite to get that hour. You know what I mean? People that were good comments, but they needed that 10 o'clock, where all this grabbed. They needed that energy from seven o'clock. People were like, Yeah, but three o'clock. Oh, yeah, I'm on the ticket. Yeah, I'll go see the Def Comedy Jam. You know what I'm saying? It was people who weren't working or people who just It just really weren't night people. Night people give it to you. You know what I mean? It was just different, but I always excelled. That night was my night because I stepped up. Unfortunately, that was the night that Comedian Shucky Ducky and Chris Rock, there was a thing that happened and it didn't fall favorable for Shucky Ducky. It propelled me to be in the headline of that show when it came out. That was an excellent night for me. That was the best part of it. Then LL, we was at the after-party, and me, I'm hanging out next to LL. He was like, You all remember You King?

He was funny. I was like, What a guy. Take my shirt off, too. Okay. It was an excellent moment. I was hype. It was like, I've arrived. That wasn't my first television credit. I did a part of Comedy Out, which wasn't a popular show, but Def Jam, man, it just took me... It was out of the stratosphere, and I had a hairline, too. So that was the best part, too. That was the last time you probably- It was. It was a long time, bro. It was a very. No, it was excellent, though. It was excellent.

We're going to go inside information, story time with Triple O. G, Rudy Rush. You just glanced over This Shucky Ducky, Quack, Quack, by the way, and Chris Rock story. So this is our show. We could talk about it. Ain't nobody coming for us.

Ain't nobody going to come out here and smack me and say, Keep my name, my wife and my name, my Jamal.

No, we're going to tell the truth.

No, I know.

For those that don't know this story, and there are a lot of people that remember Shucky Ducky, Quack, Quack.

Let's talk about it. Basically, what happens with Def Jam, and a lot of people don't know this, so you always see this show and you see the host and you see three comics. But in actuality, when we take the show, it's a host and it's four comics. Everybody's told ahead of time that someone is not going to make the cut. That pressure is put on your plate before you even get on stage, not after they tell you, before that. So you don't get that comfort of like, Oh, I made it. They're like, Oh, guess what? No, you got to step up and show up. So there was Dominic, if you don't heard from Tom Joyner and Chappelle's show. And there was also another guy from Philly named Roni Long. I'm not sure if he's still doing it, but I hadn't seen him in a long time. But Roni Long was on it. It was his first time taping. And every show, the year that I did it, every show had a guest host. Martin was no longer there. They had Ricky Harris, Joe Tori, and Adele the year before. And then after Martin, Joe Tori.

But this year, they had special guests. Our special guest is Chris Rock, which was a big deal for us. Yes, absolutely. Because Chris was the goat of comedy at that time. There was no Kevin Hart, there was no Dave Chappelle. It was really Chris by himself, no one there. Him as the host really gave our show some energy that it needed at three o'clock, like I said. But what happened was we all killed it. And then I think that in my honest opinion, Shucky Duffy definitely was one of the people that was happy Chris got smacked because I'm going to tell you, it's important Or as a Rudy Buss. Yeah, no, I say that Chris is a friend of mine, and so is Shucky Ducky. And the reason why I say that, not to hark on the incident that happened well, but I'm going to say this as a comic, and I think Chris would agree, you always try as the host to set your fellow comic up to win. Well, before Shucky Ducky hit the stage, Chris Rock was in Chris Rock mode, and he started to drift away from that support. And he was like, Well, coming to the stage, you got Shucky Ducky.

I hope he got some Jokey Wokey. That coming from an iconic figure like Chris to an audience that is really second to the Apollo of we're rolling. And I felt like Shucky came out there and he didn't have the support that he needed from Chris. You know what I'm saying? It was a joke. When you were locked in that gate and you come out and you stumble at the gate, it's like being an Olympic athlete. When you stumbled at the gate, your chances of winning is almost close to none. And so he got out the gate and he stumbled, and he made it through. And like I said, second to the up column because Def Jam audiences didn't really boo you. They did worse. They just looked at you. And they were just looking at us. Chuck, he do his thing, and he was stammering, it wasn't a set at all that was worthy of making the cut. And to make matters worse, once he was done, Chris Rock went up there and said an iconic line, which was a mockery of what Shucky Duffy, Quack, Quack. Because everybody knows Shucky Duffy, Shucky Duffy, Quack, Quack.

That was his moniker. He had little dolls and everything. And then Chris Rock did say something that was funny, but it was just a career killer. He was like, Shucky Duffy, Wack, Wack, and the crowd exploded. It was like, he almost made the cut just so they could show that. Because if you go back and look, none of that's on tape. It's all if he were there, he could tell a story. I'm telling you that.

So could it also be, I'm not speaking for Chris at all. If you got to bring in, you got to bring it.

No, you got to bring it. Yeah, no, absolutely. I think he could have done all that afterwards. It would have been justified. I just feel like if I'm coming to the stage and I work hard to get there, we went through everything from wardrobe to rehearsal. There's a pressure that goes along with being great. I'm sorry. Even if you're in game seven and you're Michael Jordan, there's something that goes in you that says, I got to be on it. You know what I mean? So you prepare. Just imagine Michael Jordan coming out and somebody saying, Michael Morgan. Even though he's still going to kick your butt, he's going to probably do a worse business and said his name wrong, but it does something to you. So basically, I'm saying that Chris shouldn't have said, I'll say it, and I'll say that he should not have said, Shucky Duffy, I hope he got some Jokey-walkies because I felt like it was a premeditated, I'm going to make fun of your little comedy style as in what you say because he could have bigged him up. And if he failed, then You're absolutely right. You're at the mercy of the host because the host has to identify the elephant in the room.

But when you set me up to fail and I do just that, and then you come behind it, compound it, I don't know. You know what I mean? It would have been much better It was served if it came with a good introduction.

I understand. I mean, you do want to create the energy as the host to bring the energy where you can because we all need.

Yeah, no, absolutely.

Michael Jordan is a tardy like myself. We take these person.

So do whatever you want to introduce me. Shucky should have took a person, I am coming with the fire.

I don't care what you're saying. I'm coming out doing my thing, but I'm not Shucky. I'm not Chris. I wasn't there, but I understand the energy.

I think honestly, the more I think about it, then you just think about the perfect ending of that was the Shucky Duffy Wack Wack. But how can we get there? If I bring him out right and he does well, I can't say Shucky Duffy Wack Wack. It goes that deep. You know what I mean?

If he killed it anyway, then maybe that intro gets redone. Shucky Duffy. They have some jokey-jokey.

No, Absolutely. But for Chris, and this is the spirit, like I'm saying, like comedians, especially when you're hosting, you have to take that, I got to serve the village. Like I said, Shuffy Ducky Wack Wack was probably the biggest response that night. In order to get there, he had to fail. I'm not saying that Chris thought about that and was premeditated, but man. But nobody in the history of Def Connery Jams ever brought up to disrespect. Never. Now that I'm thinking I hope he got some Jolly Woki. He's like, No, that's a veteran. He's one of our best Def Jam alone. It was tough because after that, Shucky He still, I'm sure, deals with it.

I heard him on Vlad TV or someone talking on Vlad TV. Oh, yeah. I'm not surprised. For sure. So from Def Jam, the golden child of New York, William's finest.

Yeah.

That's what they used to call him. That's what my two girls talk about. That's what I love it.

That's it. That's it. At the same time, though.

Tamiko, what was all the girls doing? You also, if you're from New York, if you're from Harlem, if you're from the culture, You know what Showtime at the Apollo means, and you talked about it, right? The host, you got Sam there that they're doing his thing. Somebody that's over here right now was also the host of Showtime at the Apollo. Right after Mr. Steve Steve Harvey. Talk about getting the call to do Showtime at the Apollo.

Yeah, it was crazy because honestly, and I think a lot of people notice now, if you see my vibe. I'm the youngest host ever at the age of 26. You got to take that into consideration because I think Steve at the time that he was doing it was in his late 30s into his 40s. You know what I mean? This is a grown man hosting the show. Just so everybody is clear, I think Steve was probably the best host that show has had. There's people who say that I'm their favorite, but in my personal opinion, man, there was Simbad, there was Mark Curry, there was Kim Cole, did a Outlook For A Taste, Rick Avila was the first host. He did a stunt, and Tony Rock came back and did the reboot and myself. But I Really feel like it's not about the success for Steve Harvey, really, because I worked hand in hand. That's how I got the gig. I was supposed to come and watch a couple of veteran comics do the warmups for the Pawn on Anybody who doesn't know what warmup is, when Steve is in the back getting his wardrobe together, getting ready to come out to the stage.

There's a comic who gets the crowd lathered up. You know what I mean? Keeping everybody busy. So I was supposed to come watch a couple of guys who were canceled for whatever reason, whether it was shows or something on a family situation. So instead of me watching them the Friday and Saturday night, and I do Sunday, they were like, Hey, kid, we got to use you for Friday. We'll tell you exactly what to do, and you'll be all right. And I was better than all right. I was so good that they were like, Can you come back tomorrow? The job is just yours. I'm sure Steve had a say in it. The producers had a larger say, you know what I mean? But I became just a soul warm-up guy, and Steve will tell me what to do. Hey, Don't razz the crowd. I don't want you getting into it. People like, so I couldn't make fun of people, which I never did anyway. I would just play along with the band, do other things, bring people on stage to sing or up to the front of the stage. I would just so into the job.

I mean, just imagine, 23 years old, I got all the energy in the world, you know what I mean? So I can go like an energized buddy. So it just worked me into that, which shortly became a situation where they had the McDonald's Apollo Kids Tour, where we discovered the lives of Jasper Sullivan and others. And Steve didn't want to do the tour. And as a young person, I couldn't understand it. I was like, You don't want to go and stay at the house for free? We don't want $300 a weekend for per day, bro. You know what I'm saying? But I got over there. I was like, thank you God for Steve not wanting to do everything, because honestly, that was the gig that showed people that I had the capability to really come in and step in after Steve left the show. That's how it all came to be. But it was a very rough and tumultuous three years with Steve. It was pretty bad to say the least.

It was bad.

Oh, yeah, it was bad because we never I hate to say that we never got along. Steve probably sees stuff like this or whatever. But I know that there's still tension. We did Netflix 25, Big Boon, all of us. I'm talking about, say, we call me from across the room, Yo, Rudy. D had a same thing. Young fellow called me Young Bo. We look it out. I see Steve, I got to go up to him like, Hey, Steve. And he looks at me like, You still here with me. You still alive. It was that situation. Steve and I didn't have the greatest situation. Never, like I said, I did everything he asked me to do. I bought two suits that I couldn't afford, but I bought some shirts to go Mitch Magic, whatever, until they start being in our security with a Black suit. They were like, Sir, I don't know why I stood up. I don't feel like that. Why they just sent me on stage. Like Steve Harvey part 2. Point one, point eight, whatever. But I did it and Steve never once. There were some times, and I'm going to talk about that, but Steve was mostly to himself and his crew.

Never ate afterwards, never said, Hey, I'm doing this and we want you, or let me help you with this and that. And I mean, I was kicking butt. Plus, like I said, I'm bringing the kids there from the tour, so there's rave reviews. Mcdonald's is like, I'm number one on their board. But there was something that he and I, we just didn't click. But I found out later, or I realized later what it was. And honestly, even up until recently, I was on some Steve hard be like, when people realize, and I wouldn't publicly bash anybody, but Steve is somebody when people will bring stuff, I would be like, he a bit of a-hole and blah, blah, blah, blah. I wasn't going in-depth, I felt. But honestly, I would agree. But now I've changed. I'm older and I realized this. Steve really loved that Apollo job. He really made that show what it really-The popularity, I can go to him back and say, It was Steve work? No, I have absolutely skyrocketed and it brought a lot of revenue and a lot of eyes to the show. And he was very proud of that. And he took a lot of pride of it.

And people don't know this, Steve didn't leave the show. Steve was let go from the show. He was actually exited from the show. And not because of his talent, of course. He was taken out for a different reason. And the reason I had to find out later, the hard way, a lot of things wind up. There's a trail, and the trail is money. And so they were trying I move him out because they can get to the revenue. So he's taking up a lot of that budget.

He's Steve Harker, though.

No, and he deserved every bit of it. But what the producers was like, they were like, Hey, let's get him out of there. Let's move this kid in here and give something he's never seen before, which is $10 coming from Empires hauling back around. You know what I'm saying? So I had yet to see that money. I say this, Steve saw me as a part of them, and so he treated me like them. You know what I mean? And only when... Yeah.

So here's the therapy. I'm a huge fan of Steve Harvard because his foundation, the Steve Harvard Foundation, What He Knows For You is My Leadership deal. That's it. I applaud all of that. I'm a huge fan of that. I've even done some donations to that. People don't see that side of Steve because he's not the person that's going to talk about everything he's doing. No. He's private. He cares about his circle. I am his circle. I'm not saying that at all. But you see it. When you want to see it, it's there to be seen. So here's the thing. Steve is watching. Tell Steve what you really want to say. Now that you've matured, too. Yes, Steve is my guy.

No, No, no, no. Let me tell you something. I used to have it because I felt a lot of different things, honestly. So me going through my own journey. I never had anybody really... Other than the other comics, I have some great comics to be mentors to me and stuff like that. But just like my dad wasn't into comics. But my father was a basketball player, wasn't into that, too. He never came to my games like that and stuff like that. I'm looking for this. I was always looking for that figure to... And mentor. Yeah, And working with Steve was a great opportunity. But not only that, I was trying to be in that space where I could be like, Hey, Mr. Harvey, I'm broody. I'm good. But I did realize when I was older, I said, These producers who are managing me. So I wasn't in there on my own personal ticket or somebody else got me in there. And we both have the same struggles, Steve and I. So it was different. It was like, Hey, Steve felt the move. And I'm sitting there like a dumb blonde. I I have no idea what's going on.

I'm just going because these people are like, Yeah, you're doing this, you're doing that. You understand? And so Steve and I had a lot of times where, if you want to call it bump heads, it was one time in particular. And I know he's upset with that, too. I was upset. I wanted to quit because he was being mean. And they made him apologize. To make a grown man apologize just for... I think that was another thing, another nail in the coffin in our relationship. But I will say this, to Steve, yo, you, bro, I get it now. You know what I think? You hired somebody on your team and they're very talented. But I think your crew was already tight already and the opportunity you gave him, I felt like that was God speaking through Steve. You got to make what happened with that young man right. He couldn't come and get me, but he did something really good. He changed someone's life like he could have changed mine. And it wasn't his responsibility ability. Let me get that straight out. It wasn't for him to be like, Oh, this kid's good. I got to take them.

No. But he did something for somebody who I know is a good kid. And like I said, he has a great program. Steve could have anybody on his show, but he chose his show, man. I just saw a lot of me in somebody who's on his show. And I was like, he did that for me, not whether he thought he was doing it for me or not. I think the way the universe moved- You're still not talking to Steve, though.

You say you He is, right?

It's hard because I still have those feelings sometimes. And I tried to reach out to Steve through people that it didn't work or whatever. And I always felt like I said, I came up to him the last time. I came up to you, he didn't speak to me, and I felt like we had a problem, bro. I need to let you know I'm growing now. I was a boy, 23 years old. I know your brain don't develop until you're 25, but I wasn't a cut-up. But at the same time, I couldn't understand. I couldn't see what you saw. They stole a lot of money from me, which you probably know because they were trying to take it from you, and they got it from me, and it didn't end good for me in that respect as far as being able to build my legacy and do things like that. You know what? I apologize, but I never said anything negative that you would have came back to you, but I definitely would sign off. If somebody said something bad about you in the room, I wouldn't defend it. So maybe that's the guilt. But I'm telling you now, I get a lot of the stuff that you and I had to encounter, but I'm happy for you and your family.

I'm proud of you, bro. And that's what's up.

Look at that. You didn't know it was therapy.

I feel good about that, man, because I also think sometimes We carry things that we don't have to.

I know Steve is going to see this, and I'm not predicting anything, but I think maybe he wanted to dig into that, too. Steve, just so you know, like I said, I've always been a huge fan. Rudy's always looked up to you. He's been that mentor from afar, and I want to give a shout out to what you're doing with the Steve Arthur Foundation because I know personally, the great work you're doing.

I want to say this last time, this last piece, Steve definitely Because there were times that everything... People talk about how bad they are. There was some good times. You know what I mean? You could be laughing jokes outside of makeup and all that other stuff. He gave me something that made me a bad comedian. I came off stage and he was like, You know what you want to do? Take that A joke. You got the one that you end with most comics end with their best joke. He said, Take that joke and make that your first. Come out the gate with that one. That'll make you have to take the B and C and D jokes and turn them into A jokes. Because now, what are you going to end The Rush can end and start with any joke at any time in any arena. Out of credit, Steve Cough, he made me a bad boy now. I thought he was setting me up at first. No, no, no. Steve, I am in bad mode No joke because I listened because that's all I did was listen, and I didn't take it and let it go in one way or the other.

I'm bad because you gave me that little recipe, and I use it to this day. I can start with anything and finish with anything. I can't even There it is.

So I think this is a perfect transition to go to the top five. Rudy's. Our most popular segment. Hey, let's- Rudy's top five.

We're looking for a TNT. We're looking for a sponsor for this segment. This segment is sponsored by Nobody Right Now, but listen, top five things I wish I did during my 30-year economy when I was younger. Top five things I wish I did when I was...

All right, great.

First thing I wish I did when I was younger was realize I was being raw before that. I wish about... But you know what? Had I known, there were some benefits to being raw. I got a lot of exposure. So a lot of the things I got to do was because I was Good talent. And then people saw it, and then I wanted to be a pain. But still, it did a lot. I wish I knew that before then. Second thing was, number two, I wish I would have gave a little bit more conversation to Beyoncé when she was at the Apollo to support Kelly Roma. Kelly had her soul project, and she wasn't with Jay-Z yet. And she was looking at me, and I didn't realize it at the time. She was just like, You were so nice. I should have been like, You know what? Willing to do whatever it takes. Because I could have been like that couple. I'm not Jay-Z.

So how far away was she from you when she was like, God, bro, she was not as close as we are, but closer. You were glassy, right? Yeah. You know Jay-Z was behind you. She was right.

She was right in front of you. Bro, she was on it. She I was handsome that day, too.

She was 40 feet away.

Beyoncé. You know, you're 20, 80. Now, my man, kids will cut me. I might have a little goat tea going. My God. So listen, number three. Man, you know what? Number three is I shouldn't start having kids in my 20s. Even though my 20s was great, my kids would be in their teens and 20s now. I got a nine-year-old and 19-year-old. I'm telling you, it hurts to pick up the nine-year-old. I wish I had my kids, I thought two and three were tied together, my fault. I got to hold a Beyoncé. I wish so, too. Oh, man. I'm going to put this on an arm, I'll come back to that. You know what? Now, this is going to be controversial. I really wish that I did, and the lick, the spit off with my hand. Oh, okay. The spit off with my hand from the candy that fell out of Tameya's mouth while we were at a rehearsal, we were talking, her bedhead members and I, we all were laughing and joking, and she had one of them blue grandmama pepper meds, and it popped out of her mouth. Before it hit the floor, it hit me in the hand, and I don't know what made me do it in front of everybody.

I just licked my hand, and I was like, That's all of Grant Hill did. He just kissed his wife, and I probably just licked that, and my throat was hurting for three weeks because I'm a high psychiatrist. I'm going to miss you right now. Now, last thing I wish I would have done in my 30s is tell Dave Chappelle to give me a cast position when I offered to help him out with the Chappelle show. A lot of people don't know. I hope the Chappelle show that wasn't doing too well at the time. I know the great Chappelle show, historic, but you know what Dave called me? He actually came on to the Apollo and came out and shot me out in front of everybody. It was a great thing. He's an awesome friend. Charlie Murphy is a good friend, Donna Rollins. It was an excellent experience to be a part of history. Me and Quest, look out there for out entertaining the crowd while I had the seat as the king of comedy at the time, honestly, because Steve was the I took his seat for the moment. Yeah, that was great. I should have asked for a cast position because everybody from that show is killing it now.

You're about to be, though.

But I'm killing it now with my man, nick. So I'm good. I'm going to be shut up. Now, the honorable mention was, I wish I never wore those sweat pants on stage 97. My bad. Don't come and sit down with me with sweat pants on stage.

That's a dope talk to father.

Thank you, bro.

You all said if she was looking.

She was right here, bro. She was No. She was like, How long you been housed? I was like, I'm going to be here. She was not.

She was fine.

She didn't have a makeup on it. She still looked good. I was like, I'm going to be here. She had to have something like that.

I shouldn't.

She He was nowhere. He was nowhere.

All right, dope top five.

Thank you.

The Mount Rushmore Today. Oh, yeah. Five Mount Rushmore of comics.

Let me get my shoulder ready for my war.

Yeah, let me go and slide on a little bit.

About. No, you know what? You don't have to put me on you.

This is my top five. Not my top five, my Mount Rushmore, my four. I'm also going to have a heel because I think there's actually eight great comics.

Okay.

But the Mount Rushmore. No order, just my Mount Rushmore.

Okay. Richard Plier. Oh, yeah, most definitely.

No explanation needed. I mean, nobody on my list needs an explain, but- But that's not there for sure.

Yeah, everybody is- No explanation.

George Carter.

George calling the game. Absolutely.

Dave Chappelle. Dave Chappelle, man, because you got to look at the total story, the comedic story- Yes.

Of Dave Chappelle. I don't disagree, but Dave Chappelle.

I don't disagree, but I It's my list because there's a lot of...

No, that's a bone joint. It's my list. He might be on mine. I never discussed Mount Rushmore in my head, but he could very well be on that, especially after his last special. You all got this. You all were fine.

That one is Dix and Stones, bro. Those should go down again. Comedian legend. Number four, D. L. Hugre. D. L. Here's why, man. I have seen D. L. In person seven, eight times. I had the honor, D. L. Kenia in Greenville. I had the honor of going backstage. You know D. L. Calls everybody Baby Boi. At the time, we were on the same network for the podcast. Backstage, you know this, right? When you go in the improv and the comedy clubs, you go on 7 o'clock show, and then you got the 9 o'clock show. I was backstage with DL after the 7 o'clock show. To the moment they announced the 9 o'clock show and give it up for you. I had an honor. Dl Hughley, he just walked out. He gave me so much wisdom backstage. We talked about life backstage. He was a mentor, mentor is backstage. I'm not a comedian. Dl is one of the brightest, sharpest minds I know. We were just talking about life and business and strategy. He gave me so much advice. Then he goes off stage and kills the set. You know back stage, people need their down.

You need your moments to get up. He was growing. Wow.

He was growing.

You know what? Dl broke all day. Not in a rush, well. I'll say this real quick. Before I went to Def Jam, people will come at home. They went to Def Jam. This is when Martin was actually those. It was like, Man, there's a guy who's funny because D. R. Used to do the warmups, and he was killing it. So big shout out to where he's come, how far he's come, and where he's gone, not only in film, television, but radio. He's done everything.

I will say he is, in my mind, the most relevant, the most relevant comment, because something that happened 10 minutes ago, and he is talking through and breaking it down, making you laugh and making you think all at the same time. I've never I didn't need anybody to do it like my dog D. O. All right. So now my mini four, my next- Yeah, on the hill. On the hill. Bernie Mac.

Okay.

I ain't scared anymore.

Bernie Mac. Yeah. I'm going to give you one.

I need everybody to go look this lady up. She is one of my favorite comedians of all time.

Camion Castaldi. Okay, I know who she is.

My current standing legend. I think one of the greatest.

Wait a minute. Did you ever meet her in person?

Not yet.

Okay, because I was going to say you like to be a people with boys that you just met. They was nice to you.

That's wonderful. That's my number one question. I'm going to give you Eddie Murphy.

Oh, yes. Oh, Eddie Murphy on the non-question? Okay, yeah. Yeah. Okay. I forgot. Eddie Murphy. Yeah. Eddie?

I know him.

I'm saying I'm But there's so many people, though.

Honorable mention Udi Rush, Honorable mention Sid, the retainer. There's so many people, man. That's it.

No, that's what's up. That's what's up. That's a dope list. I like that Mount Rushmore. Thank you. Now, that was good. It was thrown out. So, yeah, I need credit for that. Like you said, it's yours. But there were some people on that hill that I would move up on there, and some people I would down on the hill, and there's some people I would put in a car on the way to the pizza shop.

Will we get a sponsor for Rudy's Mount Rushmore in five years?

You can give me yours, too. Are you leaving me, Mick? What are you doing? Are you going to have Beyoncé on the show with you, man?

No, we got a sponsor for your top five. I didn't get my Hot 5. Thank you. Or moments I wish I could do over.

Yeah.

Right? This is journey part two because we stopped it because I really wanted that Steve moment to go. My Nickism for the day.

Yeah, yes. Mic-ism.

While you have time, yes, have the conversations. While you have time, have the conversations because you never want those what ifs, you never want those, Man, if I could just have one... While you have time, make time, have the conversations. Probably, bro.

Thank you.

But we will do Rudy's Yardy part, too. Yeah, there's a lot more. Because we got to go to radio, starting there, the mentorship from Doug Bates. Covid, to some other stories, to joke still.

I'm bringing everything up.

I am. There's no whole part. You all are hitting it right now. For Rudy Rush's Yardy Part 2, because we're just going to go film it right now. So we're just going to do a back to back. Rudy's part two. Get ready. It's coming. I know you want to hear it.

Oh, sir. I appreciate you, man. That's the power and the punchline. If this episode hit, do me a favor. Rate it, review it, subscribe. That's how we keep these conversations coming. Power moves The punchline makes it stick. I'm Rudy Rush. See you next time.