I was thinking about my output: Reality Show was six half hour episodes and I had a sitcom that was like 30 half-hour episodes, and then this is my fourth special—I sound like the Mad Rapper, “This is my 4000th special!”—and a couple of documentaries, and if you account for that, and all the interviews that I’ve done, I’ve probably, so far in my career, released 25, maybe 30 hours of material, which to me seems like a lot. However, your average podcaster, they put that out in a month, which is astonishing to me. It’s funny because it’s just the thought of me feeling overexposed is like, “Man, this is only three hours.” The whole reality piece in total is less than one episode of most podcasts.
It’s an interesting thought, though. What does overexposure mean? Because some of my friends would say I don’t do enough, that I’m speaking too little. I get both sides, I think.
It also seems like you’re dealing with a fallout from doing Rothaniel, and garnering this swell of goodwill and support from it, then you go into the reality show and you complicate your image. And it feels like in the new special, you’re working through the tension of that, which is really interesting.
Well, some of my favorite art is addressing haters. That’s like Eminem or some shit, you know what I mean? Just mad.
“The Way I Am” type shit.
Yeah. Just being upset, making something about criticism, that was just interesting because it was a real emotion. You don’t feel seen. You didn’t get what I was doing at all. You take all those emotions and you try and make something of it. That’s what I was doing. I’m like, oh, okay, I’m not going to engage in this online because I mean, there’s nothing I can do. You can’t win. All I could do is make something of it and hopefully be heard.
Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, you did try to engage a little bit when you went on Breakfast Club, right?
jWell, truly, that was just because—I’m not a politician, so it was the first time I was a victim of misinformation. I went on there mostly just to clear up one thing, I was there for just that reason. And that’s really just protecting someone I love.
You know what’s funny about that, I ran into Kevin Hart at a party. He was like, “This was you on The Breakfast Club. ‘Ask me a question.’ How are you doing? ‘Fuck you, Charlamagne!’ And then Kevin was like, “Never let ‘em see you mad, Jerrod.” And I was like, “Yeah, but Kevin… when are you ever mad?” He said, “It don’t matter. You can’t show ‘em.’ He’s probably right.
Are you taking that advice a little bit?
I try and just be as true as I can, whether it’s an interview or anything. I’m trying to be less guarded, but I get it. I guess that makes sense as far as curating an image, but I don’t know. It was just being honest with how I felt.
Well this is the first time where you are in a relationship with someone where now you have to deal with their reaction to your jokes.
Yeah, my boyfriend wasn’t allowed to see the show. He came to the [taping]. He wasn’t allowed to see it working up to [it], because I was a little scared, so I had to have the whole speech as a reminder: “As an artist, I reserve the right to present my interpretation of our relationship.” I try not to speak for him, but I am saying how I feel about the day-to-day. That was my first time being able to do that, to speak about a relationship.
How did that go?
Good. I mean my boyfriend and I really, I think have that understanding and respect for each other’s work and right to interpret things from our lives. And so, it’s really good. He laughed. He’d get mad at some stories and then come around to it and laugh. I’d be curious to know what every comedian’s [significant other] has gone through since like, Richard Pryor, like, “Oh, how did you feel about that?“
Rothaniel was such a huge watershed moment in your life, is it hard to find a new frontier after that?
I mean, it’s funny, I wasn’t even looking for a frontier with Rothaniel. I definitely always liked the idea of experiments. I try and approach everything as, “Okay, what is this? What is it trying to be?” And Rothaniel was just my deep personal life, coinciding with the work and making something of it. You can’t do that again.
