Red Grant – From DC With Laughs


Red Grant's face is instantly recognizable to many thanks to his numerous appearances on ComicView and Def Comedy Jam. The Washington DC native is currently on the road hosting The Pimp Chronicles II Tour, which stars Katt Williams, Luenell from Borat and Melanie Comarcho, and he’s just been picked up to do a cameo in Ice Cube’s upcoming move, First Sunday. This week I caught up with Red to discuss his comedy, why he’d never scrap with a gay guy (but did once with an officer’s son), the platform he'd run on for president, and in what way he’s just like Jennifer Aniston.

Adam Bernard: Start me off with some background info. How did you get into comedy?
Red Grant: I started in the game because I got thrown out of school. I used to play football at Savannah State University and I got into a little trouble for fighting and stuff like that and when I got sent home at 19 I started telling jokes. A friend of mine named Big Rob was like you need to really tell some jokes man, because you’re the funniest dude at the house parties. Six months later I was found by this guy named Bob Sumner who was the producer of Def Comedy Jam, so I’ve been doing comedy on TV since I was like 19 ½ years old. It kinda seemed like God had a plan for me. After Def Comedy Jam I got hired by Teen Summit to be a New York correspondent and from there I just started staying on TV.

Adam Bernard: Being so young when you received your first shot on TV, did any one comedian take you under their wing or guide you?
Red Grant: Donnell Rawlings was the one who helped me get in the game. Me and Donnell used to hang like every day, he was the first person who really taught me how to expand my jokes into a whole nother level. I give him big props. He really gave me some of my first opportunities in comedy.

Adam Bernard: You’re from DC, so tell me which presidential nominee you feel would make for the best comedy?
Red Grant: All of them can be clowned to me. This is the only nation in the world where the issues for every person on the campaign are the same. Nobody talks about the poor kids in the neighborhood. Nobody talks about the real things that are happening. They always talk about the same things; war, abortion, religion, war again, and gay marriage. I mean c’mon, are those the only issues we’re dealing with in America? Somebody needs to come and really talk about some real stuff like why am I paying $3.95 for gas and why are my kids not getting a good education and why can you spend trillions of dollars for war but you can’t give each individual in America a million dollars? If you think about it there are enough people in America that the government could give everybody in the country a million dollars to take care of em.

Adam Bernard: If you ran a campaign based on your “million dollars to every American” idea I’m pretty sure you could win an election.
Red Grant: I think I could. I mean, shucks, I would vote for somebody telling me they were going to give me a million dollars.

Adam Bernard: You know what the messed up thing would be, you still wouldn’t get 100% of the vote, even saying you’d give everyone a million dollars. Someone would be like “he supports gay marriage, we can’t vote for him. Forget that guy!”
Red Grant: Yeah. “He said gays should be in the army!” I don’t even know why people are trippin over gays in the military because you gotta be tough to be gay. Gay people are probably the toughest people in America. Let them fight. Have you ever fought a gay dude before? I have. And I had to fight hard. If you see gay people now they’re in the best shape of their lives. I work out four days a week and I’m strong as hell and I don’t even want to fight them.

Adam Bernard: You were kicked out of school, so I'm assuming you've done some crazy things in your life, but I’m wondering, what do you feel is the single dumbest thing you've ever done?
Red Grant: I fought a police officer’s son once. His father showed up with all these policemen and before they took me to jail they roughed me up real bad. I think they were just trying to scare me, I was so young. I was like 14 years old and I boxed for seven years, so I thought I could beat everybody. They had a lot of backup and I couldn’t win. Before they put me in the police car they gave me a serious wedgie, that was like the worst shit in the world. I’ve been in so much trouble I’m just glad I’m telling jokes right now because it’s gotten me out of a lot of situations. It’s changed my whole demeanor. I guess God has a sense of humor and He said if you’re going to be in trouble I’ll make you tell jokes to people and make people laugh.

Adam Bernard: You also have a few movie credits, including Leprechaun in the Hood. I’ve actually seen that movie, so you have to tell me how you ended up in it.
Red Grant: It’s a crazy story how I got involved in that movie. I used to have a roommate, I won’t mention his name, and he was also a comedian, he came home one day and was like “they sent me out on this Leprechaun in the Hood audition. Man if they call you for that don’t go out for that audition, man.” I guess he didn’t do well. The next day, lo and behold, they called me. I do my thing and about a week later they called me back and I saw all these guys who were auditioning but none of them were auditioning for the same part as I was. I walked in the room and it was Ice-T and the director and they said we like you and we want you to be in this movie. I was like alright, cool. It was as simple as that. That was the first movie that I really starred in, where I got some shine, so it was good working on that movie, it’s a ghetto classic. People keep asking me “how was it to work with the leprechaun” and I’m like, he’s magically delicious.

Adam Bernard: And Jennifer Aniston got her start in The Leprechaun, so you’re continuing the tradition of success for people who’ve starred in Leprechaun films.
Red Grant: I’m hoping that’s true because she has a great career. They keep saying that I’m about to be something in life, so that’s a good thing.

Adam Bernard: You've also done some TV production work. What shows would everyone recognize that you had a hand in?
Red Grant: I used to work for BET Special Projects in DC, so a lot of BET shows like 21 Questions, Spring Bling, The Lobby. We also had our hands in a lot of pilots like and we created seven shows for the network, three of em were like number one shows so I’m kind of proud of that. We produce films, also, like Family Reunion: The Movie, I wrote and directed that. We got some other stuff coming up with now like You Talkin Bout Me? It’s a project that we got coming out in September. We have my new television show, Red’s Head, that we’re gonna produce. It’s about all the stuff that goes on in my head and my head is crazy. It’s gonna be a mix of In Living Color with some Jackass with some Dave Chappelle type stuff going on.

Adam Bernard: What’s your overall goal when you produce shows?
Red Grant: I think my real goal is not to wait for people. I don’t like to wait for people to produce anything for me or put me in anything so I like to keep it going and produce my own stuff because I feel like I’m always creating enough to do that. So my goal is really to just let Hollywood know that nobody has to wait for me, I have a certain audience that likes me and I’ma sell to that audience.

Adam Bernard: Anything else you’d like to add?
Red Grant: Basically I’d like to let people know that there’s a new breed of comedy and it’s comin at em hard. We’re taking crowns off of heads, but we don’t want to be the kings. Hopefully the older cats in the game will respect that and if they don’t they gotta go head up with us and we’re tough.

For more Red Grant check out redgrant.com and myspace.com/redgrantcomedy.

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