Actor and comedian Deon Cole sat down this weekend with TV One’s Uncensored to discuss the highs and lows of his career.
Cole, 50, shared in a clip that he was bitten by the comedy bug at around age 21, while watching an episode of Russell Simmons’ Def Comedy Jam.
On a dare, the Chicago native went to open mic night at a local comedy club
hoping to get a break.
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Comedians Adele Givens and George Willborn were hosting. Unfortunately, Cole said he wasn’t allowed to perform because every slot was taken. He went back twice, and on his third try — he got a shot.
“The third week, I saw Adele Givens and I was like, ‘I came down here three weeks, is there any way I can go on? She was like, ‘What’s your name?’ She said, ‘I’ll put you on,'” Cole recalled. “I went on and it was lights out.”
Cole admitted the audience reception was lukewarm. Still, it was a big moment in his life.
“You know how two people stand up, and you’re like, ‘I got a standing o!’ … that was the night that I knew my life changed,” he said.
Cole later landed stand-up slots on Def Comedy Jam and Wild ‘n Out. He eventually became a writer on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien and Conan, earning two nominations for Primetime Emmy Awards.
In another part of the episode, he said making the transition from working with Conan O’Brien to booking a role on the family sitcom Black-ish was a bit of a culture shock.
“It was intimidating. I mean, I just left the whitest man in America… and to leave there and to go to Black-ish. I went over there and it was Black, but like sophisticated Black,” he said. “I was just honored to be a part of it.
Uncensored: Deon Cole aired on Sunday, Nov. 6 at 10/9C on TV One.
Just before the episode , TV One aired a new installment of music series Unsung about S.O.L.A.R. Records and its owner Dick Griffey, who helped shape the sound of 1970s R&B.
Friends, family and fellow artists celebrated the legacy of the label that came to define what S.O.L.A.R. stood for — the “Sound Of Los Angeles Records.”
Unsung led the night with S.O.L.A.R. Records at 9 p.m. ET/8C on TV One.
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