From the comedy stages to the big screens to Broadway, animated films, sitcom legend from the neighborhood. He's the most versatile entertainer of our time, always carrying around the good times, making us laugh. Let's welcome in Cedric the Entertainer, man. Thanks for coming on the show today. What's up, good buddy? How you doing, man? I'm good, man. This is how I know you're a warrior, man. At this time, you're doing Broadway. Eight shows a week, I think. You're launching a new animated movie called Swap. Closing out eight seasons of the neighborhood on a network TV show. I mean, what the hell are you doing here, bro? You should be in bed, shouldn't you? I'm chopping trees, man. That's what it is. I love the idea of entertaining, man, and having a great time doing it. So, and, you know, these projects are all really special to me. And so I really, you know, have no issue of jumping up and telling people, go check it out, man. Swap, great animated film. You know, stars Michael B. Jordan as the lead character. I play his father, Tracy Morgan's in it. Juno Temple. It's a lot of really cool voices apart in this man. And a great story, really well done animation. So definitely want people to check it out on Netflix. Make it number one all week, as we're going to do. Number one. Let's do it. Go watch it this weekend on Netflix. It's called Swap. Also the guy, one of the guys from Pixar, John Lasseter is involved. The Toy Story fame. You got the director from Tangled. Cedric, you've become one of these voices that families, they gather around, they watch these animated shows, and they see that sarcastic lemur from Madagascar, and they don't really see your face, but they know that voice. When you're doing these animated films, what have you learned about making a character and how you make it feel real when all you have is your voice? I like to liken it to being, you know, just kind of going back to that childlike energy when you're playing with your toys, and you just kind of make up these voices and you're telling a story when nobody's watching. I always love to see kids do that when they're just kind of in their own world, and they're like, hey, you can go over there, and don't sit down like that. Come over here. That is what you do, because you're in a booth by yourself. And so you just kind of see that character that give you an illustration of the character that you're going to play. You decide what he sounds like, and you work with that director to make it come to life, man. And so it's actually kind of very childlike fun to do it. You just kind of let your imagination flow. And there was a time, I feel like, when voice actors were in the same room. You were in Ice Age some time ago, Madagascar. How has the process evolved, or is it really the same as when you were recording it with Madagascar? Yeah, it's pretty much the same. The only time I've ever really recorded it with another star is in Charlotte's Web, and it was a voiceover, and I played Oprah, and I played husband and wife, and that was the only time we recorded together, because we played a couple. We wanted to make sure we had this kind of bounce to it, so it felt a lot more natural. But from the beginning, it's always kind of separate, and we meet each other in the lobby at the recording studio, kind of laughing and talking, and you'd be like, oh, man, are you about to go into your session? You're like, yeah, I just came out, and see you when the movie's done, kind of thing. Did Oprah get you a car after Charlotte's Web? I know, shoot, you get a car. Cedric's gets a car. And I didn't, nothing was there. I was like, Oprah, what's going on? You should have gotten a car, man. Yeah, at least a car. Like, come on. We're talking with Cedric, the entertainer. He's starring in the new film, Swapped. It's on Netflix. It's got Michael B. Jordan straight off his Oscar win. Tracy Morgan always makes me laugh. This is definitely an animated movie I want to watch with the kids this weekend. It's about switching perspectives. If you could be swapped with anybody for one day, Cedric, one day you get to swap with this individual, male or female, dead or alive. Who would this person be? Oh, man, you know, I think probably for me, it would just that one moment of being Bob Marley on stage, man, like just some cool music. You'd be smoking a big blunt, too, probably, I would think. Of course, that goes without saying. If it were me, it would be my buddy, Shaq. I got to travel the world with the big fella, DJing and stuff. And watching that guy make people smile and then, you know, it would be fun to get in them 22s and kick somebody, you know, or slam dunk. I hung with Shaq many times, man. He's a great, he's one of the greatest that ever do it, man. Everybody loves the diesel, man. And you guys did a comedy series like back in the DVD days, I remember. I saw those. Yeah, for All Star weekend. So the All Star comedy series, they are very popular, very big. Yeah, we did several of those and then we've done a lot of cool things together, man, over the years. That's my guy right there. We'll have to get that back going during All Star weekend. I want to talk a little about Broadway because I heard you say acting on Broadway is like the dojo for actors. What does it force you to sharpen that you normally don't get on a movie set or one of these animated film booths? I think the real key is that you got to listen, you know, because once those lights come on and that play is going, you're out there in a live situation where the playwrights words are extremely important, a message that you're giving. But, you know, anything can happen in a live situation. So you have to be really tuned in. You can't call it in. You don't get a retake. You can't say, oh, man, I'm, you know, my bad, let's go back and do that again. It is happening and it's happening right now. So the biggest thing is you have to learn that degree of patience, control, being aware, being tuned in with your fellow actor. Because even if they mess up something, you have to be ready to pick up that ball and just keep going and make it not look like a mistake. Like all of these things are a different kind of practice. It's like that kind of practice of being very intentional. And I think that that's what's different than being, you know, in a movie or on television. And stand up very similar as Broadway because once the light comes on, you're on, there's no cut moments. Do they feel the same for you when it's go time to begin on a comedy stage and then your backstage on Broadway getting all dressed up and ready to hit? Is it the same jitters or are they different? The only thing I'd say about, you know, being in a Broadway play is that you do have that support of your other actors that's out there. When you're a stand up, it's, you know, you're all alone, buddy. You know, you can't get a drummer. You can't ask for a bass solo. Everybody's sitting along. Do the joke with me. No, like you, you got to make this happen, buddy. So I love the, I love the, you know, the kind of energy that it is a live moment. It is happening. Those things are very similar for sure. But that world of stand up is probably the scariest one and the hardest one to do still. Like is when you got to walk out there all alone and hold their attention for 45 to an hour. You're riding solo when you're up on that comedy stage and then your jokes, hopefully they hit, you know, or you got to keep swinging. Yes. You're multi-multi-talented said, I know you've even got the sauces and the rubs and the whole barbecue thing going with Aunt Anderson. What is Cedric the entertainer's like best dish? If I'm coming to a big set barbecue, what are you, what are you grilling up? You know, I'm definitely, you know, I'm throwing on the ribs. I'm from St. Louis. So I got to get the ribs marinated nice throwing them up there to dribble them in the sauce. The baked bean game is crazy. My baked beans is fired. Pork and the beans. You put pork in the beans. I don't, I don't, I don't do, but I do a little bit, a little bit sometime, a little bit hand bone or something just in there, but not the actual meat in there though. But, but just give you that smoky flavor. I like that. I know you're a golf guy. If you could build your ultimate golf for some anybody, any Aaron, who is going to be a part of that for some? Oh man, I think I just probably want to laugh and have a good time all day. I like golf, but I don't like it enough to be so serious, but I probably have like one crazy golfer with me just so that, you know, we can, we can do the game. So, you know, I probably throw in like a, like a, like a OG in there. Somebody like Freddie couples, like, okay, move and cool, you know, and then there'd be like, then my boys, man, this is going to be me, George Lopez, Steve Harvey, DL, Anthony, you know, I don't know. Somebody will be on the alter the team. And who's talking the most smack you think out of that for? Who's the biggest smack talker? Oh man. Anthony Anderson. Yeah, you're going to be talking about. What's the first album you ever bought with your own money? Oh, mine was the first time I bought was Parliament Funkadelic. Was it NED? I think it was One Nation Under a Groove. Okay. George Clinton keeping you grooving. How old were you when you bought that album? Yeah, I'm going to imagine somewhere around 13 or something like that, 13, 14, you know. Nice. And what about your first car? Said what was the first whip that Cedric bought with his own money? All the money I bought with my own money. All would be, this would be a 95 Ford EXP. Okay. I'm not, no, I don't know if I'm familiar with that one. What kind of what? It's the escort, but it was the, it was the two door coupe. So it looked like it was a little more sporty, but it was a Ford escort. They called it the EXP because it was a two door. It was the coupe had a little slant back. Made you feel like you was driving something, you know, like a big sports car through some, through some 12 inch rims on it. You have any bump in the trunk? What'd you have in the back? Come on. Had the Clarion system with the 14 inch speakers. Yes. A little subwoofer. Equalizer. You had to have the equalizer under there that had the lights going. Oh yeah. Yeah. And then you had to have that other arm available to put around a girl, you know, so, you know, had the radar detector. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. That takes me back. Do you collect anything? We talked to Alan Alden. He collects umbrellas. Tom Hanks collects type raiders of all things. What does Cedric the entertainer collect? Anything? Man, you know, not really. No, I used to, I used to love, you know, I had a couple of old school cars for a while. I started to give them up, but yeah, I used to have a bunch of cars, you know, and then that was about the most I would do, man. I love that idea umbrella. You know what I do collect you right? That's funny. It's shoe horns. Oh, shoe horns. The different shoe horns. Whenever we're somewhere, I love a good shoe horn with, you know, with something different metal, different design. I probably got shoe horns and all over. I got at least nine in this house right now on this trip and man, I always pick them up. I love a good shoe. We've almost done 200 episodes on this show. You're the first person to mention a shoe horn. I'm concerned about your back though, Cedric. Are you not able to bend over and get those shoes on anymore? Well, you know, they got these new sketches where you don't even want it all. I've seen those. Those are fresh. As we end here, you've done it all. You've Broadway. I mean, we said it animated films. Go see swapped this weekend streaming at home on Netflix. You've written books. You got your own barbecue sauce. Is there anything you haven't done entertainment wise that you could put more chapters on this story? Is there anything out there left to do? You know, I think, you know, right now I'm probably looking for like a cool, like maybe one hour kind of fun procedural. I love to, you know, a Colombo as kind of character, which was a little bit fun, a little bit dramatic, something that, you know, in a longer form than a sitcom. I think that's something that I'd like to do. I love to be able to play a few more dramatic roles, you know, kind of, you know, rock a cool judge or something like that, you know, just, you know, just something to surprise my audience. Me like, oh man, you, you actually surprised me in doing something, you know, that had that kind of dramatic range to it. So I like that idea. Or maybe a podcast. Everybody's got one these days. I mean, look at me. I got one coming in Anthony doing a podcast. We should have one coming out soon. So I'll be looking for that. Yeah. We actually got a few of them in the can looking forward to introducing that to the world. We'll be looking out for that. And finally, as an entertainer, the ultimate entertainer, I'm curious, like, what do you do to be entertained? If, if you're looking for a Friday night and I want to be entertained, what is the ultimate entertainer want to do to be entertained? I love to, I really love to go see live music, man. We'd like to try to find like a band or, you know, some, some bands, some good food and watch somebody do live. I mean, you know, we've been able to catch a few Broadway plays here. My wife and I, you know, when, when I was like in the rehearsal stages. So, you know, but I love that, man. I like to, I like a good movie. I really love what's going on in the theaters right now. I love the Michael Jackson movie. Looking forward to going to see devil wears Prada, like all those kind of things. I like, I like that kind of relaxation and usually, but, you know, it's a few places here I'm in New York and I love to go see the live music energy, man. Like guys are playing and cool, challenging people everywhere. You play any instruments at all? Oh man. You got to get on the drums or something, man. You got rhythm, I'm sure. I love the bass, man. That was always one of my favorite instruments. I wish I would have learned to play the bass because I just love that, that. That funkadelic man, that George Clinton. He had that funky bass line. Well, I appreciate your time from the stage to the screen to Broadway to the barbecue. You keep finding ways to entertain people. Thank you so much for hanging with us. Congrats. Go see Swap to watch it now streaming on Netflix. And we love you said keep on keeping on my brother. Thanks for the time. I appreciate you man. Peace out bro. Later. Bye.
